NASA has established the new Moon to Mars Programme Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington to carry out the agency’s human exploration activities at the Moon and Mars for the benefit of humanity.
Amit Kshatriya will serve as the agency’s first head of the office, effective immediately.
Kshatriya previously served as acting deputy associate administrator for Common Exploration Systems Development, providing leadership and integration across several of the programmes that now fall within the new office.
Lakiesha Hawkins will serve as the deputy for the Moon to Mars Programme Office. As deputy, Hawkins will support Kshatriya in all aspects of the office’s day-to-day management and operations. Stephen Creech will serve as the technical deputy for the office. Creech will be responsible for ensuring technical issues are identified and brought to resolution across all of the offices and programmes under the Moon to Mars Programme Office.
This new office resides within the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, reporting to its Associate Administrator Jim Free.
Speaking about the new office, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said: “The Moon to Mars Programme Office will help prepare NASA to carry out our bold missions to the Moon and land the first humans on Mars. The golden age of exploration is happening right now, and this new office will help ensure that NASA successfully establishes a long-term lunar presence needed to prepare for humanity’s next giant leap to the Red Planet.”
As directed by the 2022 NASA Authorisation Act, the Moon to Mars Programme Office focuses on hardware development, mission integration, and risk management functions for programmes critical to the agency’s exploration approach that uses Artemis missions at the Moon to open a new era of scientific discovery and prepare for human missions to Mars. This includes the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft, supporting ground systems, human landing systems, spacesuits, Gateway, and more related to deep space exploration. The new office will also lead planning and analysis for long-lead developments to support human Mars missions.
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