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 heart 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 price range of greater than $25 billion.
Throughout his tenure as affiliate administrator since January 2024, NASA added almost two dozen new signatories of the Artemis Accords, enabled the primary Moon touchdown by means of the company’s CLPS (Business Lunar Payload Companies) 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 substances 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 final word servant chief – at all times placing the mission and the individuals of NASA first,” mentioned Petro. “A exceptional engineer and a decisive chief, he combines deep technical experience with an unwavering dedication to this company’s mission. Jim’s legacy is considered one 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 Purple Planet, supported the crews dwelling and dealing aboard the Worldwide House Station as they conduct a whole bunch of experiments and expertise demonstrations, and engaged business in new methods to safe a public/non-public 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 daily for individuals on the bottom, within the air, and in house,” Free mentioned. “I’m grateful for the chance to be a part of the NASA household and contribute to the company’s mission for the advantage of humanity.”
Throughout his greater than three many years 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 improvement 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 House Flight Middle in Greenbelt, Maryland. He later transferred to the company’s Glenn Analysis Middle in Cleveland and served in quite a lot of roles supporting the Worldwide House Station and the event of the Orion spacecraft earlier than transferring to NASA’s Johnson House Middle in Houston in 2008. Free returned to NASA Glenn in 2009 and was promoted to chief of the House Flight Programs Directorate, the place he oversaw the middle’s house work. Free was named deputy heart director in November 2010 after which served as heart 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 Vital Achievement Medal, and quite a few different awards.
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Kathryn Hambleton / Cheryl Warner
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
kathryn.hambleton@nasa.gov / cheryl.m.warner@nasa.gov
