Reid Wiseman was the commander of NASA’s Artemis II mission, which captivated the world as it swung over the far side of the moon in April, humanity’s first trip to leave low-Earth orbit since 1972.
Now he is headed where no astronaut has gone before: the upper management of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or J.P.L., in California, NASA’s premier center for deep-space robotic missions.
Starting Nov. 30, Mr. Wiseman will be J.P.L’s new deputy director, the California Institute of Technology, which manages the laboratory for NASA, announced on Wednesday.
“Reid is a very, very strong fit for the moment that we are in now,” Ray Jayawardhana, the president of Caltech, said in an interview.
At first glance, Mr. Wiseman and J.P.L. might seem like an odd match.
The laboratory, located just north of Los Angeles, is not deeply involved in human spaceflight, and its senior leadership has never before included an astronaut.
Although Mr. Wiseman holds engineering degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Johns Hopkins University, he has never worked as an engineer. He also has never managed an organization as large as J.P.L., where about 4,300 employees and contractors work.
“This is work I’ve never done in my life,” Mr. Wiseman said. “I’m really excited to go do it.”
Mr. Wiseman arrives at a time of accelerating change for NASA and the space industry. NASA has sought to align more of its robotic science programs with its human spaceflight goals, and is redoubling efforts to keep its missions on schedule and on budget.
The rise of new space companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and Rocket Lab also opens up the possibility of doing things differently than in the past.
“I think the new part is taking advantage of what industry brings, so we don’t need to build a straightforward spacecraft,” said Dave Gallagher, the laboratory’s director. “We will be doing more projects that are less costly, and on shorter time frames.”
Mr. Wiseman’s high profile may be a boon as J.P.L. regains its footing after several embarrassing stumbles among its successes in recent years.
Under the laboratory’s oversight, the proposed Mars Sample Return mission, which was to bring back rock and soil collected by the Perseverance rover, grew bloated and overly complex.
The mission was already expensive when NASA thought it would cost $5 billion to $7 billion. Then, in 2024, the cost estimates swelled to $8 to $11 billion, and NASA shelved the program. Several rounds of layoffs slashed the J.P.L.’s work force by about one-third over two years.
Mr. Wiseman will play a key role as Caltech battles to continue managing J.P.L. after its current contract ends in September 2028.
For the first time, NASA is inviting other organizations to bid for the management role. The call for proposals is expected to be issued next spring, with NASA announcing a winner early in 2028.
Dr. Jayawardhana and Mr. Gallagher said they welcomed the competition and expressed confidence that Caltech would prevail.
Since returning to Earth, all four Artemis II crew members — Mr. Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — have left the cadre of active astronauts. Mr. Wiseman and Mr. Glover, the pilot of the mission, are now what NASA calls emeritus astronauts. They will offer unpaid consulting work to NASA but are no longer eligible for future missions.
Mr. Glover works in a full-time administrative position at his alma mater, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Mr. Hansen has retired from the Canadian Space Agency, and Ms. Koch has been appointed the acting deputy chief engineer at NASA.
Part of what appealed to Mr. Gallagher and Caltech officials is the fact that Mr. Wiseman does not fit the traditional mold for the laboratory. “He’s going to be a thought partner for setting the vision,” Mr. Gallagher said.
The deputy director role at J.P.L. will be different than it was in the past, Mr. Gallagher said. During the last round of layoffs a year ago, a laboratory reorganization removed day-to-day operations like its fire department and building maintenance from the job’s responsibilities.
“The deputy director can have more time for institutional planning and management,” Mr. Gallagher said, and that fits with Mr. Wiseman’s skills. “I think it makes perfect sense for the time.”
Mr. Gallagher said J.P.L. was not looking to pivot to human spaceflight, but it would be involved with robotic missions related to it. That includes MoonFall, which will use rocket-propelled drones to scout the moon’s southern polar region ahead of the arrival of astronauts.
The laboratory is also studying whether an engineering model for the Perseverance rover on Mars can be rebuilt as a space-worthy rover for lunar exploration. It is part of the laboratory’s strategy to not put so many of its eggs in one basket, as it had with Mars Sample Return.
“We’ve tried to diversify a little bit, both inside NASA and outside NASA,” Mr. Gallagher said. “Inside NASA, we are doing quite a bit of helping on the moon-to-Mars stuff.”
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory was founded 90 years ago, in 1936, predating NASA by two decades. Mr. Wiseman said he saw his role as helping the laboratory to prepare for its future.
“I’m going to fight to get them, to get the engineers and the researchers, the equipment that they need, the space that they need, to do what they want to do,” Mr. Wiseman said. “If I can help that lab not live in the past, but look towards the next 90 years of exploration, then I’ve done my job. That is truly what I want.”
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