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NASA has changed two bigwigs in its human spaceflight program, only a week after releasing a report that discovered severe fault with how the primary crewed flight of Boeing’s Starliner astronaut taxi was dealt with.
The company introduced as we speak (Feb. 26) that Joel Montalbano and Dana Hutcherson will function appearing affiliate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) and appearing program supervisor of the Commercial Crew Program (CCP), respectively. They will each take cost instantly.
“Strong leadership is essential to advancing NASA’s mission, and Joel Montalbano and Dana Hutcherson are exceptionally well-qualified to serve in these acting roles,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement today. “Their experience and commitment will help ensure we deliver on the president’s National Space Policy, maintain American leadership in low Earth orbit, and build the capabilities required to achieve the near-impossible beyond it.”
The SOMD encompasses all kinds of applications and actions, together with CCP, the International Space Station (ISS) Program, Human Spaceflight Capabilities, and the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Program, which is nurturing the event of personal successors to the ISS. Montalbano takes over its management from Ken Bowersox, who announced Wednesday (Feb. 25) that he is retiring from NASA. That retirement takes impact on March 6, based on as we speak’s assertion.
CCP funds and oversees flights of NASA astronauts to and from the ISS aboard personal spacecraft — particularly, SpaceX‘s Crew Dragon capsule and Boeing’s Starliner. The program was beforehand led by Steve Stich, who will keep on at NASA as an advisor to the Human Landing System (HLS) Program, company officers advised Space.com through e mail.
(HLS is working with SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop crewed moon landers for the company’s Artemis program. SpaceX will put astronauts down on the lunar floor for the primary time on the Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 missions, and Boeing will achieve this on Artemis 5, if all goes based on plan.)
SpaceX has been flying NASA astronauts to and from the ISS since May 2020. Boeing did so for the primary time in June 2024, on a two-person trial run referred to as Crew Flight Test (CFT).
CFT turned out to be a fairly bumpy journey: Starliner suffered thruster failures and different points on the best way to the ISS, and NASA determined to carry the capsule residence uncrewed in September 2024. The two CFT astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, ended up staying aboard the station for 9 months slightly than the initially deliberate 10 days, finally coming residence on a Crew Dragon in March 2025.
Last Thursday (Feb. 19), NASA introduced the highlights of a report into CFT and its points. That report reclassified the flight as a “Type A mishap” — the identical class because the area shuttle Challenger and Columbia tragedies. And that decision ought to have been made in actual time or shortly thereafter, based on Isaacman.
“Concern for the Starliner program’s reputation influenced that decision,” he stated on Feb. 19. “Programmatic advocacy exceeded reasonable balance and placed the mission, the crew and America’s space program at risk in ways that were not fully understood at the time decisions were being contemplated. This created a culture of mistrust that can never happen again, and there will be leadership accountability.”
Today’s staffing announcement doesn’t point out Starliner or CFT, and NASA officers didn’t deal with the subject when requested through e mail by Space.com if the shakeup is said to the report and its findings. But the timing and nature of the modifications means that we’re seemingly seeing the “leadership accountability” that Isaacman promised.
Both Montalbano and Hutcherson are skilled and embellished NASA leaders.
Montalbano’s earlier jobs embody NASA flight director, program supervisor of the International Space Station at Johnson Space Center in Houston, and director of NASA’s Human Space Flight Program in Russia.
Hutcherson’s former NASA roles embody deputy supervisor of CCP’s Systems Engineering and Integration Office and deputy supervisor of this system’s Launch Vehicle Systems Office. Both she and Montalbano have gained a number of NASA management awards, based on the company’s assertion as we speak.
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