NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy named Amit Kshatriya as the agency’s new associate administrator yesterday, making Kshatriya the agency’s top full-time employee.
Path to the top: In his 20 years at NASA, Kshatriya has spent time on many of the technical teams driving America’s human exploration capabilities.
- Kshatriya worked within JSC’s mission operations directorate, climbing the ladder from robotics staff to robotics operations lead working on ISS systems.
- He then served a stint as a Mission Control flight director, where he oversaw cargo and crew missions to the ISS, before becoming deputy manager of the ISS vehicle office.
- In 2021, Kshatriya moved to Washington, DC, as assistant deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development for the SLS, Orion, and Exploration Ground Systems programs.
- In 2023, he became deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars program.
Now that he has the top civil service job—reporting to the part-time acting administrator—Kshatriya will lead the agency through a new era, where NASA aims to work more closely with industry to achieve its sole mission of beating China to the Moon.
Keep it moving: By promoting Kshatriya, Duffy is following through on his commitment to “move away” from Earth sciences in favor of greater space exploration. Kshatriya—who has experience deploying billions in NASA funds to achieve human and cargo exploration missions—will have less money to work with than recent agency leaders, but at least the mandate is crystal clear.
“Under [Kshatriya’s] leadership, the agency will chart a bold vision to return to the Moon during President Trump’s term,” Duffy said in a statement. “Amit’s knowledge, integrity, and unwavering commitment to pioneering a new era of exploration make him uniquely qualified to lead our agency…With Amit we’ll continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible.”
