Moon Pilot to Lead JPL Into Its Next 90 Years

Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman trades the cockpit for Caltech's storied deep-space lab as its new deputy director.

By The space-quantum Desk

The Artemis II crew flew farther from Earth than any humans in history. [1]

Wiseman, an emeritus astronaut and retired U.S. [1] The Artemis II crew covered 695,081 miles on their lunar flyby, a distance that sets the human spaceflight record. [1]

Before the Moon mission, Wiseman spent 165 days aboard the International Space Station during Expedition 41 in 2014, and served as NASA chief astronaut from December 2020 to November 2022, overseeing crew flight readiness and crew safety for all NASA human spaceflight missions. [1] He holds a master's in systems engineering from Johns Hopkins University. [1]

The appointment threads two distinct traditions together — the lived visceral knowledge of deep-space travel and the patient, long-horizon discipline of robotic exploration. One kind of courage informs the other.

Wiseman's mandate: operational excellence today, and whatever impossible thing the lab dreams up next. [1]