NASA undertakes major reorganization to reduce bureaucracy and move faster

Why the change? According to NASA officials, it’s to simplify things for program leaders. Instead of needing to go to several different directorates for resources and major decisions, they will have to navigate fewer channels. The leaders of the Mission Directorates below will also now report directly to Isaacman instead of Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, the agency’s top civil servant. This is to allow Kshatriya to take more technical ownership of projects within the agency. Widely respected among his peers, Kshatriya will accordingly also become chief engineer of NASA. Combine Space Operations and Exploration Systems Development into a single Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate. The goal is to unify the strengths of NASA’s Exploration and Space Operations communities into a streamlined organization, built to deliver on the next era of human spaceflight. Lori Glaze as Associate Administrator, with Joel Montalbano and Kelvin Manning as Deputies. Within the directorate, the primary divisions will be: Aeronautics Research and Space Technology Mission Directorate will combine into a single Research and Technology Mission Directorate. This will unify NASA’s aeronautics, space technology, and nuclear power and propulsion capabilities into a single, fast-moving organization focused on delivering the breakthrough technologies our missions and the Nation require. Dr. James Kenyon as Associate Administrator, with Wanda Peters as Deputy. Within the directorate, the primary divisions will be: The Science Mission Directorate, under Nicky Fox, and Mission Support Directorate, under John Bailey, will be unchanged. However NASA will seek to streamline functions within Mission Support that overlap between headquarters and shift those responsibilities back to field centers. A major theme in the letter is giving field centers more opportunities to focus on their core capabilities instead of competing in a cutthroat environment for resources. What to make of this? Is it reflective of political shenanigans? Hughes was abrasive during this stint as chief of staff last year, rubbing some NASA employees the wrong way. However, a NASA source said the agency needed someone with political chops to lead Kennedy. There is constant infighting there among users, such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and other launch companies, in addition to conflicts with the Space Force and Federal Aviation Administration. When one spaceport user does something another user does not like, they call the White House. “Now, when someone tells Hughes ‘give me what I want or I will call POTUS,’ Hughes can say, ‘So can I,’” this source told Ars. A main theme of the letter and proposed changes is increasing efficiency and achieving cost savings where possible. “When you step back, it is worth considering how many additional missions we could have undertaken with the resources lost to program cancellations and cost overruns over the years,” Isaacman wrote. “That is the problem we must fix, so the American taxpayer and space-loving community can receive the highest scientific return on every dollar we spend at NASA.” One notable area where NASA will seek efficiencies is at the famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. This planetary research center is not operated by NASA but is instead a federally funded research and development center managed by the California Institute of Technology. This California-based university has operated the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, essentially without competition, since the 1950s. Its contract expires in 2028. Isaacman said the Department of Energy has had success with opening up competition to run its federally funded research and development centers, and he believes NASA can do the same. To that end, NASA will open a competition through the Request for Proposals mechanism for other universities to come in and operate the NASA Laboratory. Institutions like Purdue University and Texas A&M University are likely to be interested, with NASA’s goal to maximize the amount of science done per dollar invested.