SpaceX has hired NASA’s former head of human spaceflight Kathy Lueders as the company continues to develop its Starship launch system to return humans to the moon and beyond.
The news was first reported by CNBC. According to that reporting, Lueders will work out of SpaceX’s Starbase launch and rocket development facility in southeast Texas. Starbase is home to all Starship development and was the location of that vehicle’s first orbital flight attempt in April. She will report to SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell.
Lueders brings with her intimate knowledge of the space agency’s processes and standards for human spaceflight. The space agency announced her retirement as associate administration of Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) at the end of March. Her career at NASA spanned more than three decades and included stints on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) programs.