Texas Resident Sentenced for BurglaryAs the result of a joint investigation by the NASA OIG and Houston Police Department, a Texas resident was sentenced to 12 months of imprisonment for breaking into a SpaceX leased building and stealing five encrypted iPads containing unspecified Commercial Crew Program information.
Random thought of the day: With ISS near retirement, the necessity of maintaining two crew transport providers for redundancy is going away. Presumably every one of the new commercial stations can run unmanned for extended amount of time, and they don't need to worry about Russians taking over the station without American presence. If they just rely on a single crew provider, and it has an accident and had to stand down for a while, it's not a big deal operationally. There would be some financial penalties for not being able to use the station for some time, but this needs to be balanced against the higher cost of having 2nd provider, it's not clear to me a 2nd provider would make financial sense.
I hope nobody is suggesting that Shenzhou is a threat
On Thursday, NASA announced Joel Montalbano will serve as the acting associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington, and Dana Hutcherson will serve as the acting program manager of the Commercial Crew Program. SOMD’s programs and activities include the Commercial Crew Program, the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Program, the Human Research Program, the International Space Station Program, the Launch Services Program, the Rocket Propulsion Test Program, the Space Communications and Navigation Program, Space Sustainability, and Human Spaceflight Capabilities. Both leaders were previously serving as deputies in their respective roles. “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,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “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.” Kenneth Bowersox previously announced his retirement, effective Friday, March 6, after which Montalbano will assume the role as acting head of SOMD. Key priorities for Montalbano will include establishing a low Earth orbit economy ahead of retiring the International Space Station and maintaining America’s superiority in space. Prior to his positions at headquarters, Montalbano served as program manager of the International Space Station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he was responsible for the overall management, development, integration, and operation of the orbiting laboratory. He also has served as a variety of other roles, including deputy program manager for the International Space Station Program Office; director of NASA’s Human Space Flight Program in Russia; and a NASA flight director. He started his career at Rockwell in 1988 and became a NASA civil servant that same year. Over the course of his career, he has received many honors, including the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, Johnson Space Center Directors Commendation, Rank of Meritorious Executive, conferred by the President of the United States, NASA Exceptional Service Medal (twice), the Superior Accomplishment Award, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, Rotary Space Award Nominee, and more. Montalbano received a bachelor’s degree in aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering from Iowa State University. Through CCP, Hutcherson will continue her work with the American aerospace industry to develop safe, reliable and cost-effective crew transportation systems for low-Earth orbit destinations, including the International Space Station. She is responsible for the facilitation of spacecraft development, certification, and operations to enable the safe transportation of NASA astronauts for the Commercial Crew Program. Hutcherson previously served as deputy manager of the CCP Systems Engineering and Integration Office, and as deputy manager of the program’s Launch Vehicle Systems Office. She also has served as a NASA flow director within the Launch Vehicle Processing Directorate at Kennedy, and other roles at NASA. Prior to NASA, she began her career with United Space Alliance as an airframe engineer. Hutcherson has received numerous prestigious honors including Meritorious Presidential Rank Award, NASA’s Space Flight Awareness Leadership Award, and Outstanding Leadership Medal. She holds a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, and a master of science in industrial engineering of engineering management from the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
Ryan Caton@dpoddolphinpro·1h.@NASA Leadership News: Dana Hutcherson is becoming Acting Program Manager of the Commercial Crew Program.The current Program Manager, Steve Stich, is not mentioned at all in the press release. I think we can put two and two together though.It is also officially confirmed that Ken Bowersox is retiring, effective March 6. Joel Montalbano will take his place as Acting Associate Administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate.These departures follow the scathing Starliner report, which was released to the public 7 days ago.📷 @NASA
Quote from: Marcia SmithNASA tells me Steve Stich will remain at NASA and work on the HLS program.They also say the Acting positions are effective *immediately* and they're updating the press release to make that clear.https://twitter.com/SpcPlcyOnline/status/2027080833811554686
NASA tells me Steve Stich will remain at NASA and work on the HLS program.They also say the Acting positions are effective *immediately* and they're updating the press release to make that clear.
One week after promising leadership changes stemming from the 2024 Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test incident, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has replaced the heads of the Space Operations Mission Directorate and the Commercial Crew Program. Ken Bowersox is retiring and Steve Stich is moving to another position at the agency. Their deputies will take over for now. ... NASA’s press release today didn’t mention Stich at all, only that Hutcherson would take over as acting CCP manager immediately. In a statement to SpacePolicyOnline.com, NASA said Stich will remain with the agency and work with the Human Landing System (HLS) program that oversees the Public-Private Partnerships with SpaceX and Blue Origin to build systems to take astronauts between lunar orbit and the surface of the Moon.
Two Top NASA Spaceflight Leaders Replaced:
While the Commercial Resupply Services contract can be considered successful in many respects, the Commercial Crew Program (CCP)’s experience with the Commercial Crew contract revealed that, among other issues, NASA’s own responsibilities and accountability for risk management of a human spaceflight system in development was at times at odds with the “services contract” mentality and culture attendant to the contracting strategy. In the case of the CCP Starliner program, the vehicle may have met the requirements of the contract but ultimately did not fully fulfill NASA’s own risk management responsibilities with the necessary performance and technical data, especially for crisis situations such as the Loss of Control during the docking phase. As a result, this Panel has made a new, forward-looking formal recommendation to NASA regarding the need for broad realignment of how the Agency engages the space economy to support NASA’s risk and safety requirements.
Quote from: yg1968 on 02/27/2026 12:19 pmTwo Top NASA Spaceflight Leaders Replaced: For a second, I thought Chris Bergin had been ousted in a coup.
