New Directorate for Human Exploration and Operations Created at NASA

Officials at the American space agency announced today, August 12, that a new Mission Directorate has been created at NASA. Dubbed Human Exploration and Operations (HEO), the organization's main objective will be to focus on operations conducted in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and beyond.

The Space Operations and Exploration Systems mission directorates are both combined within HEO, according to the press release. The latter will be focused primarily on conducting operations on the International Space Station (ISS) and on manned exploration to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

Before HEO was created, NASA Headquarters in Washington DC operated only four directorates, called Aeronautics, Science, Exploration System, and Space Operations. The latter two were combined to form the new organization, so the space agency now features just three main directorates.

One of the main rationales for putting this structure together was to achieve a higher degree of integration between managing in-space asset operations and current capabilities, and planning for future assignments, both manned and unmanned.

Theoretically, HEO should be able to make better use of the resources NASA has at its disposal at this time, by putting everything under a coordinated leadership. The work force, facilities and contracts that the agency will require in this domain will also be decided by this directorate's management.

The HEO Mission Directorate is already up and running, providing critical support to ongoing missions and ISS operations. However, the full transition of personnel and equipment from the former two organizations to the new one is expected to take a few extra week.

“America is opening a bold new chapter in human space exploration,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement to mark the occasion.

“By combining the resources of Space Operations and Exploration Systems, and creating the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, we are recommitting ourselves to American leadership in space for years to come,” he added.

Among the attributes of the new directorate, NASA top officials also included tasks such as managing commercial crew and cargo developmental programs, which currently involve several private companies, and hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.

HEO will also manage the development of the Congress-mandated Space Launch System – a new heavy-lift rocket, and the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Exploration Vehicle (MPCV), currently being built at Lockheed Martin.

NASA top brass decided to put Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier in charge of HEO for the time being. Before this job, he was the associate administrator for Space Operations at the space agency.