Caltech has named Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman as the new JPL deputy director. He starts Nov. 30, 2026, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, according to the JPL announcement on Oct. 28.
The title is dual. Wiseman becomes JPL deputy director and also a Caltech associate vice president, because Caltech manages the lab for NASA. He is a retired Navy captain and an emeritus NASA astronaut.
What the JPL deputy director does
The release says Wiseman will handle strategic leadership, stewardship and continuous improvement of lab operations. He will also work closely with Caltech on institutional planning, management and compliance.
In addition, he will serve as Center Management Authority for JPL mission execution. That role means he makes sure mission support functions meet NASA requirements and applicable federal and state rules. Finally, he becomes the lab’s main contact for national security programs.
Wiseman reports into a leadership team led by JPL director Dave Gallagher, who is also a Caltech vice president. Gallagher said Wiseman “adds incredible bench strength” to that team. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman called him someone with the technical judgment and operational experience to lead.
Who Wiseman is
Wiseman joined NASA’s astronaut corps in 2009. In 2014 he spent 165 days aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer on Expedition 41. Two years later he commanded an eight-day underwater mission in a habitat on the ocean floor.
He then served as NASA’s chief astronaut from December 2020 to November 2022. In that job he oversaw crew readiness and safety for all agency human spaceflight missions.
Most recently he commanded Artemis II. According to NASA, the crew traveled 695,081 miles on a lunar flyby, farther from Earth than any humans have gone. The crew included Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.
Why it matters in Los Angeles
JPL is one of the region’s largest science employers, and its leadership sets priorities for robotic missions to Mars, the outer planets and beyond. The lab says it is the only federally funded research and development center that NASA operates. Caltech has run it since its founding in 1936, so the lab is approaching its 90th year.
The appointment also links the lab’s robotic work with crewed spaceflight experience. Still, the release does not say how Wiseman’s duties will change mission schedules or budgets, and neither JPL nor Caltech has announced any such change. The start date is about a month away, so expect more detail once he is in the job.
For more local research coverage, see our science and technology guide. Our look at ocean exploration versus space exploration also explains how deep-sea and space budgets compare.