Reid Wiseman, commander of NASA's Artemis II mission, has been appointed associate vice president of Caltech and deputy director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. He takes up the role on 30 November 2026, NASA announced.
Wiseman is a retired astronaut and retired US Navy captain. He joined NASA in 2009 as a member of the astronaut corps, and in 2014 served as a flight engineer on the International Space Station during the 165-day Expedition 41 mission. Two years later, he commanded the 21st expedition of NASA's Extreme Environment Mission Operations programme, during which he lived for eight days in a habitat on the ocean floor.
From December 2020 to November 2022, he served as the agency's chief astronaut, leading the astronaut corps and overseeing crew readiness and safety in all of NASA's human spaceflight missions. During his years of service at the agency, he conducted hundreds of scientific experiments.
During the Artemis II test flight, Wiseman flew with Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, covering 695,081 miles in a lunar flyby, travelling further than humans have ever gone before.
JPL is the only NASA research and development centre funded by the federal government, and it is managed by Caltech for NASA. The laboratory is approaching its 90th anniversary. Dave Gallagher is director of JPL and vice president of Caltech, while Ray Jayawardhana is president of Caltech. Jared Isaacman is NASA's administrator.
In his new role, Wiseman will be responsible for the strategic direction, management and continuous improvement of the laboratory's operations, including close collaboration with Caltech on institutional planning, management and compliance. As the executive authority for the centre executing JPL's missions, he will ensure operational excellence in mission support functions in accordance with NASA requirements and applicable federal and state regulations. He will also serve as JPL's primary point of contact for national security programmes.
Wiseman graduated in computer and systems engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, after which he joined the Navy, where he flew combat missions and served as a test pilot. He holds a master's degree in systems engineering from Johns Hopkins University, and his hometown is Baltimore.
