NASA shakes up leadership of human spaceflight program in wake of critical Starliner report

An image of the International Space Station, with its many solar panels and modules, floating above Earth in space — The International Space Station has hosted rotating astronaut crews continuously since November 2000. (Image credit: NASA)

NASA has replaced two bigwigs in its human spaceflight program, just a week after releasing a report that found serious fault with how the first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner astronaut taxi was handled.

The agency announced today (Feb. 26) that Joel Montalbano and Dana Hutcherson will serve as acting associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD) and acting program manager of the Commercial Crew Program (CCP), respectively. They will both take charge immediately.

"Strong leadership is essential to advancing NASA's mission, and Joel Montalbano and Dana Hutcherson are exceptionally well-qualified to serve in these acting roles," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement today. "Their experience and commitment will help ensure we deliver on the president’s National Space Policy, maintain American leadership in low Earth orbit, and build the capabilities required to achieve the near-impossible beyond it."

The SOMD encompasses a wide variety of programs and activities, including CCP, the International Space Station (ISS) Program, Human Spaceflight Capabilities, and the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Program, which is nurturing the development of private successors to the ISS. Montalbano takes over its leadership from Ken Bowersox, who announced Wednesday (Feb. 25) that he's retiring from NASA. That retirement takes effect on March 6, according to today's statement.

CCP funds and oversees flights of NASA astronauts to and from the ISS aboard private spacecraft — namely, SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule and Boeing's Starliner. The program was previously led by Steve Stich, who will stay on at NASA as an advisor to the Human Landing System (HLS) Program, agency officials told Space.com via email.

(HLS is working with SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop crewed moon landers for the agency's Artemis program. SpaceX will put astronauts down on the lunar surface for the first time on the Artemis 3 and Artemis 4 missions, and Boeing will do so on Artemis 5, if all goes according to plan.)

SpaceX has been flying NASA astronauts to and from the ISS since May 2020. Boeing did so for the first time in June 2024, on a two-person trial run called Crew Flight Test (CFT).

CFT turned out to be a pretty bumpy ride: Starliner suffered thruster failures and other issues on the way to the ISS, and NASA decided to bring the capsule home uncrewed in September 2024. The two CFT astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, ended up staying aboard the station for nine months rather than the originally planned 10 days, eventually coming home on a Crew Dragon in March 2025.

Last Thursday (Feb. 19), NASA announced the highlights of a report into CFT and its issues. That report reclassified the flight as a "Type A mishap" — the same category as the space shuttle Challenger and Columbia tragedies. And that call should have been made in real time or shortly thereafter, according to Isaacman.

"Concern for the Starliner program's reputation influenced that decision," he said on Feb. 19. "Programmatic advocacy exceeded reasonable balance and placed the mission, the crew and America's space program at risk in ways that were not fully understood at the time decisions were being contemplated. This created a culture of mistrust that can never happen again, and there will be leadership accountability."

Today's staffing announcement does not mention Starliner or CFT, and NASA officials did not address the topic when asked via email by Space.com if the shakeup is related to the report and its findings. But the timing and nature of the changes suggests that we are likely seeing the "leadership accountability" that Isaacman promised.

A white and blue Boeing Starliner capsule floats above a blue Earth with the black of space in the background. — Boeing's Starliner spacecraft approaches the International Space Station during a test flight. (Image credit: NASA)

Both Montalbano and Hutcherson are experienced and decorated NASA leaders.

Montalbano's previous jobs include NASA flight director, program manager of the International Space Station at Johnson Space Center in Houston, and director of NASA's Human Space Flight Program in Russia.

Hutcherson's former NASA roles include deputy manager of CCP's Systems Engineering and Integration Office and deputy manager of the program’s Launch Vehicle Systems Office. Both she and Montalbano have won multiple NASA leadership awards, according to the agency's statement today.

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.