US Senate Committee votes to advance NASA nominee Jared Isaacman

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 - The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee voted late on Monday to advance the nomination of billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman to lead NASA.

Last week, President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the space agency touted his plans to put U.S. astronauts back on the moon before China gets there and sought to portray himself as independent from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

Isaacman, an e-commerce mogul who twice flew to orbit on all-private astronaut missions as a customer and collaborator with SpaceX, told senators that falling behind in the moon race with China "could shift the balance of power here on Earth."