NASA Affiliate Administrator Jim Free introduced Wednesday his retirement, efficient Saturday, Feb. 22. As affiliate administrator, Free has been the senior advisor to NASA Performing Administrator Janet Petro and leads NASA’s 10 middle administrators, in addition to the mission directorate affiliate directors at NASA Headquarters in Washington. He’s the company’s chief working officer for greater than 18,000 staff and oversaw an annual funds of greater than $25 billion.
Throughout his tenure as affiliate administrator since January 2024, NASA added practically two dozen new signatories of the Artemis Accords, enabled the primary Moon touchdown by way of the company’s CLPS (Industrial Lunar Payload Providers) initiative to ship NASA science to the lunar floor, launched the Europa Clipper mission to check Jupiter’s icy ocean moon, and located molecules containing the elements for all times in samples from asteroid Bennu delivered to Earth by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Useful resource Identification and Safety–Regolith Explorer) spacecraft.
“All through his profession, Jim has been the last word servant chief – all the time placing the mission and the individuals of NASA first,” stated Petro. “A outstanding engineer and a decisive chief, he combines deep technical experience with an unwavering dedication to this company’s mission. Jim’s legacy is one in every of selfless service, steadfast management, and a perception within the energy of individuals.”
Among the many notable contributions to the nation throughout his NASA profession, Free additionally championed a brand new path ahead to return samples from Mars forward of human missions to the Pink Planet, supported the crews residing and dealing aboard the Worldwide Area Station as they conduct a whole lot of experiments and expertise demonstrations, and engaged trade in new methods to safe a public/personal partnership for NASA’s VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) mission on the Moon.
“It has been an honor to serve NASA and stroll alongside the workforce that tackles probably the most troublesome engineering challenges, pursues new scientific data in our universe and past, develops applied sciences for future exploration endeavors, all whereas prioritizing security each day for individuals on the bottom, within the air, and in house,” Free stated. “I’m grateful for the chance to be a part of the NASA household and contribute to the company’s mission for the good thing about humanity.”
Throughout his greater than three a long time of service, Free has held a number of management roles on the company. Earlier than being named NASA affiliate administrator, Free served as affiliate administrator of the Exploration Programs Growth Mission Directorate, the place he oversaw the profitable Artemis I mission and the event of NASA’s Moon to Mars structure, defining and managing the techniques growth for the company’s Artemis missions and planning for NASA’s built-in deep house exploration strategy.
Free started his NASA profession in 1990 as an engineer, engaged on Monitoring and Information Relay Satellites at NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Heart in Greenbelt, Maryland. He later transferred to the company’s Glenn Analysis Heart in Cleveland and served in a wide range of roles supporting the Worldwide Area Station and the event of the Orion spacecraft earlier than transferring to NASA’s Johnson Area Heart in Houston in 2008. Free returned to NASA Glenn in 2009 and was promoted to chief of the Area Flight Programs Directorate, the place he oversaw the middle’s house work. Free was named deputy middle director in November 2010 after which served as middle director from January 2013 till March 2016, when he was appointed to the NASA Headquarters place of deputy affiliate administrator for Technical [sic] within the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.
A local of Northeast Ohio, Free earned his bachelor’s diploma in aeronautics from Miami College in Oxford, Ohio, and his grasp’s diploma in house techniques engineering from Delft College of Expertise within the Netherlands.
Free is the recipient of the Presidential Rank Award, NASA Distinguished Service Medal, NASA Excellent Management Medal, NASA Distinctive Service Medal, NASA Important Achievement Medal, and quite a few different awards.
For extra details about NASA, go to:
https://www.nasa.gov
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Kathryn Hambleton / Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
kathryn.hambleton@nasa.gov / cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov
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