NASA announces reorganization of human spaceflight directorate
Source: Spaceflight Now
Date Published: 09/22/2021
NASA announced Tuesday that the agency’s human spaceflight division will split into two new mission directorates, one focused on space operations and another on deep space exploration, returning to the organizational structure of a decade ago. The new Space Operations Mission Directorate will oversee mature human spaceflight programs, such as the International Space Station and commercial crew and cargo missions. The operations directorate is also in charge NASA’s efforts to commercialize low Earth orbit, an objective the agency hopes will lead to privately-owned space stations. The Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate will manage NASA’s Artemis moon program, including the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket, the Orion spacecraft, and the Human Landing System, the spacecraft that will carry astronauts to and from the lunar surface. The change will dissolve the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, or HEOMD, which NASA established in 2011 to combine the previous operations and exploration directorates after the retirement of the space shuttle and the cancellation of the Constellation moon program. NASA officials said the growth of the agency’s human spaceflight
