NASA Veteran Kathy Lueders to Oversee SpaceX’s Starship Program

Kathy Lueders, former associate administrator of NASA’s space operations mission directorate, has joined SpaceX as general manager with oversight of the Starship rocket program, CNBC reported Monday.

She will directly report to Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX and a four-time Wash100 awardee, and work through the company’s Starbase facility in Texas.

SpaceX is working to make Starship a vehicle that would safely perform human spaceflight missions in the coming years.

In April, Lueders retired from the space agency after a more than three-decade career. Her previous roles at NASA include associate administrator of human exploration and operations mission directorate and Commercial Crew Program manager.

As manager of the Commercial Crew Program, she helped oversee SpaceX’s first missions to transport NASA astronauts.

Ken Bowersox, most recently deputy associate administrator of SOMD, succeeded Lueders as head of the mission directorate.

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