In Simple Terms
After leading a crew on a journey around the Moon, Reed Wiseman is taking on a new job at a major space research center. Instead of flying in space, he will help guide teams that build and operate robotic spacecraft. His move also marks a new chapter for all four members of the Artemis 2 crew.
A Different Kind of Leadership
Reed Wiseman led NASA’s first crewed flight around the Moon in decades, but he will not continue his career at the controls of spacecraft. Instead, he is moving to another hub of American space exploration: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL. Starting November 30, he will serve as the laboratory’s deputy director and as a vice president of the California Institute of Technology, known as Caltech. It is a very different challenge: moving from working aboard a spacecraft to helping guide an institution that designs and operates robotic missions across the solar system.
JPL announced Wiseman’s appointment in late October 2026. He will work under laboratory director Dave Gallagher. His responsibilities will include helping set the lab’s strategic direction, managing its resources, and supporting ongoing improvements to its operations. Wiseman will not be piloting a spacecraft to another planet or personally operating a probe. Instead, he will help manage a large organization that coordinates a wide range of scientific and engineering teams and missions.
The move matters because leading a laboratory involves more than setting plans or tracking schedules. An institution developing space missions must balance ambitious scientific goals against available resources while maintaining the operations and capabilities needed to carry out projects that can last for years. Wiseman’s experience in flight, testing, and astronaut management may serve him well in this kind of role, though running a laboratory focused on robotic missions is naturally different from commanding a crew in space.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman described Wiseman as someone who combines technical judgment, operational experience, and leadership ability—qualities that, he said, can help the laboratory accomplish more. The praise reflects Wiseman’s varied career: he served as a Navy pilot and test pilot, later managed NASA’s astronaut corps, and then commanded a crewed mission around the Moon. Each stage gave him a different perspective on the risks, decisions, and teams that make space missions possible.
A Laboratory That Works Far Beyond Human Reach
JPL is different from a center focused mainly on human spaceflight. It is a federally funded research and development center managed by Caltech, with a major focus on exploring space with uncrewed spacecraft. Its best-known projects include the Mars rovers Perseverance and Curiosity, the Europa Clipper mission to study Jupiter’s moon Europa, and the Voyager probes, which are still traveling through deep space.
The laboratory also operates NASA’s Deep Space Network, a communications system that sends commands to spacecraft and receives their data from far beyond Earth. That work attracts less public attention than images of a Mars landing, but it is essential: a distant spacecraft needs a way to send back what it discovers and receive instructions that guide its work. JPL therefore both builds missions and operates a crucial part of the communications system linking NASA to spacecraft throughout the solar system.
Against that backdrop, Wiseman’s experience as an astronaut could complement the laboratory’s work with robots. Crewed spacecraft require quick decisions and close coordination between astronauts and teams on the ground. Robotic missions, by contrast, often contend with vast distances, communication delays, and operations that must be planned well in advance. These differences do not make the experiences interchangeable, but they highlight the value of Wiseman’s understanding of how missions can be designed with the people who work on them in mind, as well as the importance of testing and operational readiness.
From the Navy to the Space Station
Wiseman grew up in Baltimore and served in the U.S. Navy, retiring with the rank of captain. He worked first as a pilot and then as a test pilot, a job that involves evaluating aircraft and systems under controlled conditions and paying close attention to how equipment and crews respond in different situations. He joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 2009, shifting his career from military aviation toward preparing for space missions.
Wiseman first reached orbit aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft, which carried him to the International Space Station. He spent 165 days there as part of Expeditions 40 and 41 and completed two spacewalks lasting nearly 13 hours in total. The experience offers a concrete picture of an astronaut’s work: living on the station is not simply a journey, but a sequence of daily duties, experiments, maintenance, and work outside the spacecraft—all of it demanding training and coordination.
Before being selected for Artemis 2, Wiseman served as NASA’s chief astronaut from December 2020 to November 2022. The job involved crew readiness, assigning astronauts to flights, and flight safety. During that period, he shifted from carrying out missions as an astronaut to helping prepare his colleagues for them. That management experience serves as a bridge between his time in orbit and his upcoming responsibilities at JPL.
The Moon Mission That Opened the Door to What Comes Next
On April 1, Wiseman and three crewmates launched aboard the Orion spacecraft on the Artemis 2 mission. The crew included NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, and NASA astronaut Victor Glover. The four spent 10 days traveling around the far side of the Moon before returning to Earth. According to information released about the mission, the crew traveled farther from Earth than crews on any previous spaceflight, though the announcement did not give a specific distance.
Artemis 2 did not land on the lunar surface. Its purpose was to test a crewed journey around the Moon and help prepare for later steps. Even so, the flight included moments that were personally meaningful to the crew. Wiseman described watching the Sun disappear behind the Moon from deep space—a sight unlike anything that can be seen from Earth. For him, the flight was not an ending; it strengthened his desire to contribute to the exploration projects envisioned by Caltech and JPL.
The mission provides important context for Wiseman’s move, but it does not mean his new job is simply a symbolic extension of the lunar flight. Artemis 2 focused on one specific crewed journey, while JPL’s work spans a broad range of robotic missions and space communications. Still, Wiseman’s experience managing risk, preparing for flight, and working in highly specialized teams could be relevant at an institution that depends on collaboration across many fields.
Four Crew Members, Four New Directions
Wiseman is the last Artemis 2 crew member to announce a new career path after stepping away from active flight assignments. In September, he and Glover announced that they were moving to honorary or reserve astronaut status, a step that means leaving active service in the astronaut corps. Glover later accepted a job as executive adviser to the president of California Polytechnic State University, known as Cal Poly, where he studied.
Hansen announced a change of direction in July and later joined the Royal Canadian Air Force Reserve. Koch, who has also stepped away from active flight assignments, was named NASA’s acting deputy chief engineer, with her appointment set to begin on November 1. The four paths are different, but each marks a shift from preparing for space missions to a new role in management, education, or military service.
It is important to distinguish leaving active spaceflight from leaving the space field altogether. Wiseman is not turning away from exploration; he is moving into a position where he can help shape the work that supports missions. His crewmates’ new roles also show how astronauts’ experience can be put to use beyond a spacecraft—in engineering management, advisory work, or continued military service. Each person, however, is following a path of their own, and their transitions should not be treated as identical.
What Could the Appointment Mean for JPL’s Missions?
The appointment of a new leader does not, by itself, signal a specific change in any mission plan. Nor did the announcement provide details of technical decisions or schedules that will change as a result of Wiseman’s arrival. What is clear is that his experience will become part of the leadership of an institution responsible for complex scientific operations—from spacecraft exploring the Martian surface to missions studying moons around distant planets and a network that receives signals from faraway spacecraft.
Wiseman’s new role comes as NASA continues to develop its Artemis program. The agency is targeting mid-2027 for the launch of Artemis 3, a test flight involving the Orion spacecraft and lunar landers developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin: Starship and Blue Moon. If plans proceed as hoped, that mission will pave the way for Artemis 4, which is intended to make the program’s first crewed lunar landing in 2028. Those dates are targets, not guarantees that every stage will happen on schedule.
The connection to Artemis does not mean Wiseman will run the lunar program from his position at JPL; the laboratory has its own missions and responsibilities. But his experience on Artemis 2 gives him direct knowledge of what it takes to send people into space, while his new work places him at the heart of robotic exploration. Together, those perspectives offer a rare view of space exploration: the people who travel, the machines sent to places crews cannot reach, and the teams that make both possible.
The Bottom Line
Starting November 30, Reed Wiseman will move from commanding a flight around the Moon to serving as deputy director of JPL and a vice president of Caltech. Working under laboratory director Dave Gallagher, he will help support the institution’s strategic direction and operations. His career has taken him from the Navy to a 165-day stay aboard the International Space Station, including two spacewalks totaling nearly 13 hours, and then to command of the 10-day Artemis 2 mission. As all four crew members take on new professional roles, the mission’s success marks the beginning of another chapter. For Wiseman, that means helping lead an organization that explores the solar system with robotic spacecraft and communicates with them.