Jared Isaacman Confirmed as NASA Administrator in Landmark 67–30 Senate Vote After Contentious Battle

Space gets a new captain—after a political dogfight.

Jared Isaacman, the billionaire entrepreneur-turned-astronaut, finally clinched the NASA top job today. The Senate's 67–30 vote ends months of partisan wrangling—proving even space isn't immune to Earth's gravity of bureaucracy.

Wall Street analysts are already calculating how many government contracts his private space ventures will now 'coincidentally' win.

Investors are chasing SpaceX exposure via an ETF ahead of IPO

While Jared battled for the NASA seat, a separate surge built around SpaceX. Retail investors scrambled to gain even a small slice of the private company before any public listing.

That rush pushed the ERShares Private-Public Crossover ETF, ticker XOVR, into the spotlight. The fund pulled in more than $470 million since Dec. 8, which is more than half its entire assets.

One reason: A Bloomberg report said Musk aims for a 2026 IPO that could raise over $30 billion and value SpaceX at around $1.5 trillion. Investors saw the ETF as one of the only U.S.-listed ways to access the firm because it holds a tiny piece of SpaceX through a special-purpose vehicle.

The ETF gained that exposure in December 2024. ERShares said it invested over $20 million in SpaceX at the time, giving the holding roughly 12% of the ETF’s assets. SpaceX became its first private stake after the fund changed its name in August 2024 and added private companies to its mandate, which includes public entrepreneurial ventures too.

But as new cash flooded in, the SpaceX slice got diluted to about 4% of assets. Data show it now sits behind Nvidia, Meta, and Maplebear.

ETF.com research head Dave Nadig said the fund values its SpaceX shares at $185. “That price is far below what secondary markets show,” he noted. That low mark keeps the holding small and makes it hard for the ETF to buy more without updating the price.

If SpaceX listed at $420, the price used in a recent secondary sale, the fund’s net asset value WOULD jump about 4%. But Nadig warned that many investors might not keep the full gain because late buyers could see their returns shrink once sellers exit after the IPO.

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