Yesterday morning, CNBC News started reporting that SpaceX had hired Kathy Lueders, who retired from NASA at the end of April, to help get Starship flying. To me, the "uh-oh" in this story was that it first showed up on YouTube and I just see far too much sensationalized crap on YouTube to take seriously - it's clickbait - especially things involving Elon Musk. I went to check the official SpaceX Twitter feed and found nothing. After that, I went to Elon Musk's Twitter account, and again found nothing.
Kathy Lueders (pronounced "leaders") had been the head of NASA's successful Commercial Space office, the office that ran the contracts to return manned spaceflight to America and led to the contracts with SpaceX and Boeing to carry crews to the International Space Station. NASA has an official biography here, that is revised as of the end of April.
CNBC adds these details:
Lueders’ role will be general manager, and she will work out of the company’s “Starbase” facility in Texas, reporting directly to SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
It’s a key hire for SpaceX as the company aims to make its massive Starship rocket safe to fly people in the coming years. Lueders, a respected expert in the sector, is already familiar with the company’s human spaceflight work to date.
They also add that “SpaceX did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Lueders’ hiring.” Similarly, Space.com reports, “CNBC learned of Lueders' new job from unnamed "people familiar with the matter." SpaceX has not publicly announced the hire.”
It's interesting to note that she follows in the footsteps of one of her recent NASA predecessors, William Gerstenmaier, who joined SpaceX in 2020 after more than a decade as the agency’s top human spaceflight official - before passing the job to her. Gerstenmaier is now SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability.
NASA human spaceflight chief Kathy Lueders retired at the end of April 2023 after 31 years with the agency. (Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
My editorializing is that I haven't dug much into her record and only first
heard of her in
2019. That said, she seems to have been a solid contributor to the
Commercial Crew program, maybe even the driver, that got the US out of the
doldrums and returned manned launches to the US after the nine years without
them. Is she the right person for the job? We'll find out.
Man, I hope they don't get NASA all over everything. It's hard to scrub that stuff out.
ReplyDeleteI generally agree with J Wilder, but in this case, I think you need to have an insider from NASA to help you navigate the politics of man-rated flight, especially if you plan to have NASA use your service. I hope she can avoid spreading NASA stench all over SpaceX while still getting enough of the odor so NASA will accept the outsider. Their previous record with the Dragon capsule helps too. SpaceX needs her to have a good reputation in NASA, and that she has many mentorees in key positions of influence for the next 5-10 years.
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It would be interesting to know if this is a Musk hire or a Gwynne Shotwell hire. If Gwynne signed off she believes that Lueders will fit the Space X culture.
ReplyDeleteWhat does it say if BOTH Musk and Shotwell signed off on her?
DeleteLueders was the New NASA. She was critical in keeping SpaceX in the NASA programs based on SpaceX ability. That she was forced out of NASA is the consequential point. SpaceX is likely weighing whether hiring Lueders would be acceptable to NASA or endanger future contracts. NASA is reverting to the mean.
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