'This approach with two areas focused on human spaceflight allows one mission directorate to operate in space while the other builds future space systems,' NASA said in a press release announcing the move.

His branch will primarily oversee more routine launch and spaceflight activities, including missions involving the space station and privatization of low-Earth orbit, as well as sustaining lunar operations once those have been established. Leuders will keep her associate administrator title as head of the new Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, focusing on NASA's most ambitious, long-term programs, such as plans to return astronauts to the moon under project Artemis, and eventual human exploration of Mars.ДЄ retired deputy associate administrator, James Free, who played key roles in NASA's space station and commercial crew and cargo programs, will return to the agency as head of the new Space Operations Mission Directorate. The move breaks up NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, currently headed by Kathy Leuders, into two separate branches. 'It's setting the stage for the next 20 years, it's defining NASA's future in a growing space economy.' 'Today is more than organizational change,' Nelson said at a press briefing. Nelson said the shake-up was also spurred by a recent proliferation of flights and commercial investment in low-Earth orbit even as NASA steps up its development of deep-space aspirations.

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