The Senate voted 50-49 Thursday to confirm Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., as NASA administrator, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
Bridenstine will replace Robert Lightfoot, who has been leading NASA as acting chief since January 2017 and is set to retire by the end of April after a nearly three-decade career at the space agency.
“I look forward to working with the outstanding team at NASA to achieve the president’s vision for American leadership in space,” Bridenstine said in a statement published Friday.
Bridenstine’s confirmation came a month after House lawmakers called on the upper chamber to expedite his appointment in order for NASA to have a permanent leader to decide on several space exploration programs.
He is a former naval aviator, a sponsor of the American Space Renaissance Act and former executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum & Planetarium in Oklahoma.
President Donald Trump nominated Bridenstine to the NASA chief role in September 2017.