NASA names director of Johnson Space Center in Houston

NASA named Vanessa Wyche director of the agency’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston this week, giving her the permanent position after she stepped into the acting role earlier this year. This move makes Wyche the first Black woman to lead a NASA center.

Wyche took on the role of acting director in May after previous Director Mark Geyer stepped down. Before that, she had served as the deputy director of JSC since 2018. Her career with NASA has spanned over 31 years in the roles, which included the roles of assistant center director and director of the center’s Exploration Integration and Science Directorate. She has worked in the executive office of the NASA administrator, served as a flight manager for multiple space shuttle missions and led other center-level technical and program organizations.

Before Wyche joined NASA in 1989, she worked for the Food and Drug Administration.

“I’m humbled and honored to be chosen to lead the more than 10,000 employees at Johnson Space Center, who work each day to enhance scientific and technological knowledge via space exploration to benefit all of humankind,” Wyche said in a statement.

In her new position, Wyche will lead JSC in the development and operation of human spacecraft, commercialization of low-Earth orbit and the center’s role in landing the first woman and first person of color on the surface of the Moon.

Wyche isn’t the only woman who was named a director of a NASA center this week. Janet Petro was named director of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“It’s an incredible time at NASA, and with Vanessa and Janet leading the Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers, NASA will embark on a new era of space exploration — starting with the Artemis I launch to the Moon later this year,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.

Houston Business Journal © Copyright 2021