Name: NASA’s head of human spaceflight resigns one week before historic launch
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NASA’s head of human spaceflight resigns one week before historic launch

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Douglas Loverro, NASA’s head of human spaceflight, has resigned one week before the agency and SpaceX are set to resume astronaut launches from Florida.Loverro surprised the aerospace community by resigning Monday, just seven months after being named associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations. He oversaw all programs involving astronauts, including the International Space Station, Artemis moon mission and the Commercial Crew Program that will launch astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on May 27. Loverro’s deputy associate administrator, Ken Bowersox, will serve as the acting associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations.“Loverro hit the ground running this year and has made significant progress in his time at NASA,” the agency said in a statement. “His leadership of (Human Exploration and Operations) has moved us closer to accomplishing our goal of landing the first woman and the next man on the moon in 2024.”More on next week’s launch:More immediate, however, is the launch next week where Hurley and Behnken will head to the International Space Station on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft. This will be the first astronaut launch from U.S. soil into orbit since 2011, when NASA retired the space shuttle, and it’s an important flight test for SpaceX to receive NASA certification for more routine human launches.The flight readiness review for this mission — to make sure all the pieces are in place for the launch, to do a final check of hardware and crew safety, etc. — is Thursday. Loverro was supposed to chair this review. It will now be led by NASA Associate Administrator Stephen Jurczyk, who has been with the agency since 1988.NASA did not say why Loverro resigned.In an email , Loverro told NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations staff that he had made a mistake.“Our mission is certainly not easy, nor for the faint of heart, and risk-taking is part of the job description,” Loverro said in the email. “The risks we take, whether technical, political, or personal, all have potential consequences if we judge them incorrectly. I took such a risk earlier in the year because I judged it necessary to fulfill our mission. Now, over the balance of time, it is clear that I made a mistake in that choice for which I alone must bear the consequences. And therefore, it is with a very, very heavy heart that I write to you today to let you know that I have resigned.”David Alexander, director of the Rice University Space Institute, said the news dampens some of the excitement around next week’s launch.“It is not ideal when you change out a member of the team, particularly such an important member, on short notice,” Alexander said.But he doesn’t think it will affect next week’s launch as Commercial Crew has an experienced team capable of making the needed decisions. John Logsdon, founder of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, also doesn’t expect Loverro’s resignation will affect the launch.“Commercial Crew has its own momentum. It’s own management structure,” Logsdon said. “I don’t see why his departure should change that particular aspect of human spaceflight.”The NASA statement praised next week as “a new era in human spaceflight” and said it has confidence in the work done by Kathy Lueders, NASA’s program manager for Commercial Crew, and her team.“This test flight will be a historic and momentous occasion that will see the return of human spaceflight to our country,” NASA said, “and the incredible dedication by the men and women of NASA is what has made this mission possible.”andrea.leinfelder@chron.comtwitter.com/a_leinfelder

Douglas Loverro, NASA’s head of human spaceflight, has resigned one week before the agency and SpaceX are set to resume astronaut launches from Florida.Loverro surprised the aerospace community by resigning Monday, just seven months after being named associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations. He oversaw all programs involving astronauts, including the International Space Station, Artemis moon mission and the Commercial Crew Program that will launch astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on May 27. Loverro’s deputy associate administrator, Ken Bowersox, will serve as the...

NASA’s head of human spaceflight resigns one week before historic launch

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