{"id":398846,"date":"2025-09-05T02:44:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T02:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/398846\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T02:44:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T02:44:20","slug":"moon-to-mars-veteran-amit-kshatriya-named-nasa-associate-administrator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/398846\/","title":{"rendered":"Moon-to-Mars veteran Amit Kshatriya named NASA associate administrator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"d286104f-8878-4e28-800f-881b01f82426\">Amit Kshatriya, a veteran of NASA&#8217;s Moon to Mars Program, has been named associate administrator, the agency&#8217;s top civil-service role.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Amit has spent more than two decades as a dedicated public servant at NASA, working to advance American leadership in space. Under his leadership, the agency will chart a bold vision to return to <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/55-earths-moon-formation-composition-and-orbit.html\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/55-earths-moon-formation-composition-and-orbit.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the moon<\/a> during President Trump&#8217;s term,&#8221; Acting NASA Administrator <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/missions\/champion-lumberjack-reality-tv-star-and-cabinet-secretary-who-is-sean-duffy-nasas-new-interim-chief\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/missions\/champion-lumberjack-reality-tv-star-and-cabinet-secretary-who-is-sean-duffy-nasas-new-interim-chief\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sean Duffy<\/a> said in a <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/news-release\/acting-nasa-administrator-duffy-selects-exploration-focused-associate-administrator\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/news-release\/acting-nasa-administrator-duffy-selects-exploration-focused-associate-administrator\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" rel=\"noopener\">statement on Wednesday<\/a> (Sept. 3) that announced the selection.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-seasonal\" data-url=\"\" href=\"\" data-hl-processed=\"none\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"d286104f-8878-4e28-800f-881b01f82426-2\">&#8220;Amit&#8217;s knowledge, integrity, and unwavering commitment to pioneering a new era of exploration make him uniquely qualified to lead our agency as associate administrator,&#8221; he added. &#8220;With Amit, we&#8217;ll continue to push the boundaries of what\u2019s possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>You may like<\/p>\n<p id=\"d03cb9b4-15b0-4bf5-aad0-522d71f2f6d4\">Kshatriya was born in Wisconsin to first-generation Indian immigrants. He earned a bachelor&#8217;s degree in math from the California Institute of Technology and a master&#8217;s in the same subject from the University of Texas at Austin.<\/p>\n<p>Kshatriya has held a number of jobs at NASA since joining the agency in 2003, including software engineer and spacecraft operator. He was flight director for the <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/16748-international-space-station.html\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/16748-international-space-station.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">International Space Station<\/a> (ISS) from 2014 to 2017, then moved to the ISS Vehicle Office, where he served as deputy and acting manager.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, Kshatriya was assigned to the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He became deputy associate administrator for ESDMD&#8217;s Moon to <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/47-mars-the-red-planet-fourth-planet-from-the-sun.html\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/47-mars-the-red-planet-fourth-planet-from-the-sun.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mars<\/a> Program.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In that role, Kshatriya was responsible for program planning and implementation for human missions to the moon and Mars,&#8221; Kshatriya&#8217;s <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/people\/amit-kshatriya\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/people\/amit-kshatriya\/\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA biography<\/a> states. &#8220;He directed and led the programs to ensure Artemis and Mars planning, development, and operations were consistent with ESDMD requirements, and served as the single point of focus for risk management.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!<\/p>\n<p id=\"1c98949f-abde-4dc6-a6b4-de818af4f206\">The NASA associate administrator is the highest-ranking civil servant (as opposed to political appointee) at the agency.<\/p>\n<p>In this role, Kshatriya oversees the directors of NASA&#8217;s 10 research centers and the leaders of the agency&#8217;s mission directorates in Washington, D.C. He also acts as NASA&#8217;s chief operating officer and serves as a senior advisor to Duffy, according to Kshatriya&#8217;s NASA biography.<\/p>\n<p>Kshatriya takes over from Vanessa Wyche, the director of NASA&#8217;s <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/17216-nasa-johnson-space-center.html\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/17216-nasa-johnson-space-center.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Johnson Space Center<\/a> in Houston, who had been <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/nasa-leadership-shakeup-trump-2nd-term\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/nasa-leadership-shakeup-trump-2nd-term\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">serving in an acting capacity<\/a> since February of this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amit Kshatriya, a veteran of NASA&#8217;s Moon to Mars Program, has been named associate administrator, the agency&#8217;s top&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[70,413,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-398846","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115149397428610998","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}