The Senate confirmed Nelson's nomination by unanimous consent on Thursday afternoon.
Nelson served as a chairman of the US House Space Subcommittee for six years, then while in the Senate he served as the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Space and Science Subcommittee and Ranking Member of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
Nelson traveled to space in 1986 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia and served as a payload specialist. His trip made him the second sitting US lawmaker to travel into space.
US space activity has been very active over the last several years as NASA works with private companies like billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX to boost efforts to develop new ways to send humans to space and the moon.