A decorated Indian-American Amit Kshatriya has been named as NASA’s new ‘exploration-focussed’ associate administrator, the US space agency announced.
Kshatriya, a 20-year NASA veteran, was most recently the deputy in charge of the Moon to Mars Programme in the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD) at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) headquarters in Washington.
“Acting NASA Administrator Sean P Duffy on Wednesday named exploration-focussed Amit Kshatriya as the new associate administrator of NASA, the agency’s top civil service role,” a NASA statement said. Born in Wisconsin to Indian immigrant parents, educated at California Institute of Technology (CalTech) and the University of Texas at Austin, Kshatriya is one of only about 100 people in history to serve as a mission control flight director. He joined NASA in 2003.
Kshatriya was decorated with the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal for
actions as the lead flight director for the 50th expedition to the space station, according to his profile on the NASA website.
He is also the recipient of a Silver Snoopy, an award astronauts bestow for outstanding performance contributing to flight safety, for his actions as lead robotics officer for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Dragon demonstration mission to the orbiting laboratory, it added.
In his new role, he serves as the highest-ranking civil servant at the agency and as a senior advisor to Duffy, NASA said. Kshatriya leads the agency’s 10 centre directors, as well as the mission directorate associate administrators at NASA headquarters in Washington.
He also acts as the agency’s chief operating officer.
Earlier in his role
as the deputy in charge of the Moon to Mars Programme, Kshatriya was responsible for programme planning and implementation for crewed missions to the Moon through the Artemis campaign in preparation for humanity’s first mission to Mars.