Leaving NASA: Reflections on a 35‑Year Journey and the Road Ahead for Civil Space

In July 2025, after a thoroughly enjoyable and fulfilling 35‑year career at NASA, I made the gut‑wrenching decision to leave the agency and federal service. It was not a choice I made lightly. I spent months weighing the future landscape — the uncertainties of the federal budget, the evolving role of civil servants, and my own desire to focus the latter stages of my career on advancing concepts and technologies for the public good.

Stepping away from the day‑to‑day demands of leading a large, diverse engineering organization — and from the constant “incomings” of a new administration and agency leadership — gave me the space to reflect. I explored new opportunities, pursued learning, and engaged in projects that offered fresh perspectives on how NASA is perceived and where it stands today.

What NASA Still Does Exceptionally Well

• Extraordinary People: NASA’s workforce is among the smartest, most dedicated anywhere. The shared belief in the mission and the value of public service drives people to make deep personal sacrifices to get the job done.

• Ingenuity Under Pressure: Whether squeezing more science from a cost‑constrained payload or solving technical problems deep into testing, the “can‑do” spirit rarely fails to deliver.

• A Culture of Care: NASA genuinely values the safety, wellness, and humanity of its people — something I’ve seen firsthand in high‑risk test environments.

• Unique Capabilities: From planetary entry, descent, and landing (EDL) to active remote sensing, autonomous advanced air mobility systems, and other capabilities, NASA still leads in areas no one else matches.

  
  

Where We Must Confront Hard Truths

• Lack of Strategic Focus: Too often, future capability forecasts mirror what we already have. Strategy is as much about what we choose not to do as what we invest in — yet passion for legacy capabilities makes it hard to let go, even when we’re no longer unique or competitive.

• Scarcity Mindset: Flat or declining budgets (in real dollars) for over a decade have conditioned us to “do it all on a shoestring.” This limits our ability to envision an abundant future where we do fewer things, but do them exceptionally well.

• Internal Competition: Parochial attitudes between centers and missions hinder integration, strategic trades, and coordinated investment decisions.

• Process Overload: Reviews are too long, too crowded, and too document‑heavy. We can uphold engineering rigor, technical excellence, and independence without drowning in PowerPoint and process.

• Lagging in Digital Transformation: Digital engineering, agile methods, and AI adoption are essential to accelerate development cycles and remain relevant — yet culture, workload, cost, and IT security barriers slow progress.

• IT Security as a Bottleneck: Overly cumbersome processes and a “culture of no” are costing the agency the equivalent of hundreds of full‑time employees in lost productivity each year.

• Financial Systems Driving People, Not Strategy: Full cost accounting is useful for tracking, but when it dictates workforce allocation, it fragments talent across too many projects and increases portfolio risk.

  
  

The Path Forward

These challenges are real — but they are not insurmountable. If we are serious about returning humans to the Moon, stimulating commercial space, boosting domestic aviation, and delivering high‑value science, we need a restructuring that aligns resources, capabilities, and strategy.

NASA’s legacy is one of bold vision and technical excellence. Preserving that legacy — and ensuring it thrives in a rapidly changing world — will require tough choices, cultural shifts, and a willingness to let go of what no longer serves the mission.

Closing Thought: Leaving NASA was one of the hardest decisions of my life. But stepping outside has only deepened my respect for the people and the mission — and strengthened my conviction that with focus, integration, and agility, NASA can continue to inspire the world for decades to come.