SpaceX employs former NASA human spaceflight chief Kathy Lueders: report

Kathy Lueders isn't out of the running for spaceflight after all.

Lueders, who stood down as NASA's chief of human spaceflight at the end of April, has been hired by SpaceX, CNBC reported on Monday (May 15). 

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She'll be based at the company's Starbase facility in South Texas, where the massive Starship deep-space transportation system is being developed. According to CNBC, Lueders will be a general manager who will report directly to SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell.
 

Kathy Lueders isn't out of the running for spaceflight after all.

Lueders, who stood down as NASA's chief of human spaceflight at the end of April, has been hired by SpaceX, CNBC reported on Monday (May 15). 

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She'll be based at the company's Starbase facility in South Texas, where the massive Starship deep-space transportation system is being developed. According to CNBC, Lueders will be a general manager who will report directly to SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell.
 

According to CNBC, Lueders' departure is not unprecedented: Bill Gerstenmaier, who commanded NASA's human spaceflight programme from 2005 to 2019, joined SpaceX immediately after retiring from the space agency in early 2020(opens in new tab). He is currently the company's vice president of construction and flight reliability.

Lueders' new role was revealed to CNBC by unnamed "people familiar with the matter." The hire has not been made public by SpaceX.

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