AI Insight
Reid Wiseman, commander of NASA's Artemis II mission that completed a 10-day flight around the moon in April, has been appointed as deputy director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, effective November 30. All four Artemis II crew members have retired from active astronaut duty and transitioned to new roles, with Wiseman joining JPL to help oversee strategic leadership and laboratory operations. The Artemis II mission took the crew farther from Earth than any previous crewed spaceflight, serving as a stepping stone toward NASA's goal of returning astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028.
Why it matters
This leadership transition brings experienced spaceflight expertise to JPL, a key institution managing NASA's robotic space exploration missions including Mars rovers and deep space communications. The career moves of all four Artemis II astronauts reflect the program's progression as NASA advances toward establishing a permanent lunar presence.
Understand the Science
The leader of NASA’s first mission around the moon in half a century is the last to announce what’s next for him after retiring from active astronaut duty.
All four astronauts of the Artemis II mission, which flew around the moon in April, have hung up their spacesuits and moved on to greener pastures. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), managed by Caltech, announced yesterday that former NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman will step into the role of Caltech associate vice president and deputy director of JPL, beginning Nov. 30.
“Reid has spent his career at the edge of what is possible, and he has the technical judgment, operational experience, and leadership to help push that edge farther,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a JPL press release.
Wiseman announced his transition to “astronaut emeritus” alongside Artemis II pilot Victor Glover in September. Glover, subsequently, accepted a full-time role as executive advisor to the president of his alma mater, California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly).
Artemis II mission specialists, Christina Koch and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen, also made the decision to step away from their spaceflight careers. Hansen announced his career change in July, and has since entered into reservist duty with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Koch, more recently, was appointed as NASA’s acting deputy chief engineer, effective Nov. 1.
The quartet launched aboard NASA’s Orion capsule on April 1, and completed a 10-day flight around the far side of the moon and back. Their mission took them further from Earth than any crewed spaceflight in history, and captured the attention of millions, who were captivated by the astronauts’ incredible views and their ability to demonstrate the best traits of humanity, even while being the four people farthest from it.
The mission served as a stepping stone in NASA’s Artemis program which aims to return astronauts to the surface of the moon and eventually establish a permanent base there. NASA is targeting mid-2027 for Artemis III as a flight test with Orion and the two Artemis lunar lander spacecraft (SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon). If everything goes according to plan, that mission will pave the way for Artemis IV, and the program’s first crewed lunar landing in 2028.
A Baltimore native, Wiseman is a retired U.S. Navy captain who served as an aviator and test pilot before joining NASA’s astronaut corps in 2009. He launched to space for the first time on the on the Soyuz TMA-13M mission to the International Space Station (ISS). He spent 165 days in orbit serving as part of ISS Expeditions 40 and 41, and completed two spacewalks totaling nearly 13 hours.
Before his selection for Artemis II, Wiseman worked as NASA’s chief astronaut, overseeing crew readiness, astronaut assignments and flight safety from Dec. 2020 – Nov. 2022.
As JPL’s new deputy director, Wiseman will serve under Director Dave Gallagher, helping oversee “strategic leadership, stewardship, and continuous improvement of laboratory operations,” according to the JPL release.
JPL is a federally funded research and development center specializing in robotic space exploration. The lab is responsible for some of NASA’s most recognizable planetary missions, including the Perseverance and Curiosity Mars rovers, Europa Clipper and the Voyager probes. JPL also operates NASA’s Deep Space Network, which provides continuous communications with spacecraft throughout the solar system.
“I’ve explored the furthest reaches of what a human can explore at NASA — and there were truly no words in the English vocabulary to describe seeing the sun disappear behind the moon from deep space,” Wiseman said.
“But that experience was really the jumping off point to go do the impossible things that Caltech and JPL dream, dare together, and do for NASA and the nation.”
Source: Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman named deputy director for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory