The president withdrew Jared Isaacman’s nomination to lead the space agency in June, but senators of both parties appeared willing to give him a second shot at confirmation.
The ability of Russia to launch astronauts to the International Space Station remains in limbo after an incident last week at the Baikonur base in Kazakhstan.
With the government reopened, the space agency at last released pictures captured by a fleet of government spacecraft of an object that came from beyond our solar system.
The ESCAPADE mission, which launched to space on a Blue Origin rocket on Thursday, breaks the mold of how planetary science missions typically come together.
Scientists who study comets are struggling to keep up with popular speculation that the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS was sent to our solar system by an alien intelligence.
The nomination of the billionaire entrepreneur, private astronaut and Elon Musk ally was before the floor of the Senate when the president abruptly withdrew it in June.