Jared Isaacman, US President Donald Trump’s two-time appointee to lead NASA, said it was his goal that the United States beat rival China in the race to return humans to the Moon, during a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

Isaacman, 42, a billionaire entrepreneur and private astronaut who is a close associate of Elon Musk, appeared during a rare second confirmation hearing that followed Trump’s re-nomination of him in November for the top post at the US space agency.

Isaacman told senators that, if confirmed for the job, he would ensure the success of the Artemis lunar exploration program started in 2017, during Trump’s first administration.

“America will return to the Moon before our great rival, and we will establish an enduring presence to understand and realize the scientific, economic and national security value on the lunar surface,” Isaacman said.

His nomination — first announced after Trump won the 2024 election, then withdrawn in April 2025 and again reissued last month — reflects the president’s on-again, off-again relationship with Musk, the world’s richest man and founder of SpaceX, among other ventures.

“I have to say for a moment, (this) feels a bit like Groundhog Day,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, said as he opened the hearing.