NASA’s associate administrator will leave the agency at the end of the week as uncertainty continues about the timing and scope of potential job cuts.

In a statement late Feb. 19, NASA announced that Associate Administrator Jim Free will retire from the agency, effective Feb. 22. Free had been associate administrator, the top civil-service position in the agency, since the retirement of Bob Cabana at the end of 2023.

Free was previously associate administrator for exploration systems development, a position NASA created in 2021 when it split the former Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate into two directorates, one overseeing exploration programs and the other the International Space Station and related operations. Earlier in his 30-year NASA career, he was director of the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

  • Tsiolkovsky’allMEnglish
    2•2 days ago

    Not sure this was a thing he decided to do. M2M and the Artemis campaign have been relatively protected so far, and that’s largely rumored to be Free’s doing. My sense is that he wouldn’t voluntarily leave his post.

    Leaders like Jim are in the “Special Executive Service” (SES) and can be reassigned basically at the whim the government (Ref: us code). In the past, SES have been encouraged to depart by being reassigned to an undesirable post or a post geographically inconvenient for them and their families. In general, executives treated in this fashion take the hint.

    Jim is a methodical and thoughtful engineer that cared about and protected both his people and the mission. I’d say he deserves better, but it’s probably healthier for him not to have to participate in the dismantling of the agency he loved.

    Ad astra.

  • @mojofrododojoEnglish
    2•2 days ago

    ejecting before musk crashes the agency.

    smart.