Chief of the Astronaut Office

Patrick Forrester is the current Chief of the Astronaut Office, having served since June 2017.

The Chief of the Astronaut Office is the most senior leadership position for active astronauts at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The Chief Astronaut serves as head of the NASA Astronaut Corps and is the principal advisor to the NASA Administrator on astronaut training and operations.

History

When Deke Slayton was grounded from the Mercury Seven due to a heart condition, he took on the position of Coordinator of Astronaut Activities and informally held the title of "chief astronaut". In this role, he held responsibility for the operation of the astronaut office.

The position of Chief of the Astronaut Office was officially created in November 1963, when Alan Shepard was named as the first Chief Astronaut. His responsibilities included monitoring the coordination, scheduling, and control of all activities involving NASA astronauts. This included monitoring the development and implementation of effective training programs to assure the flight readiness of available pilot and non-pilot personnel for assignment to crew positions on manned space flights; furnishing pilot evaluations applicable to the design, construction, and operations of spacecraft systems and related equipment; and providing qualitative scientific and engineering observations to facilitate overall mission planning, formulation of feasible operational procedures, and selection and conduct of specific experiments for each flight.

Since the Shuttle era, the Chief of the Astronaut Office often returns to active duty in the Office once their term is complete. The Chief is currently responsible for managing Astronaut Office resources and operations, and helps develop astronaut flight crew operation concepts and crew assignments for future spaceflight missions.

List of Chief Astronauts

#	Name	Started	Resigned	Deputies	Notes
1	Deke Slayton	September 1, 1962	November 1963		unofficial
2	Alan Shepard	November 1963	July 1969
3	Tom Stafford	July 1969	June 1971		Stafford held the position while Shepard prepared for and flew Apollo 14.
4	Alan Shepard	June 1971	August 1, 1974
5	John Young	January 14, 1974	April 15, 1987	Paul J. Weitz	Acting Chief during STS-1 training was Alan Bean.
6	Dan Brandenstein	April 27, 1987	October 1992	Steven Hawley	Hawley was Acting Chief while Brandenstein prepared for and flew STS-49, the first flight of Shuttle Endeavour.
7	Robert Gibson	December 8, 1992	September 6, 1994	Linda Godwin	Gibson handed the position over to Cabana to begin training for STS-71, the first Shuttle docking to Mir.
8	Robert Cabana	September 6, 1994	October 1997	Linda Godwin	Cabana handed the position over to Cockrell to begin training for STS-88, the first International Space Station assembly mission.
9	Kenneth Cockrell	October 1997	October 1998		Cockrell later flew two Shuttle missions.
10	Charles Precourt	October 1998	November 2002	Kent Rominger and Steve Smith
11	Kent Rominger	November 2002	September 2006	Andy Thomas and Peggy Whitson
12	Steven W. Lindsey	September 2006	October 2009	Janet Kavandi and Sunita Williams (February 2008 to October 2009).	Lindsey resigned when he was assigned to command STS-133, which at the time was planned to be the final Space Shuttle mission.
13	Peggy Whitson	October 2009	July 2012	Rick Sturckow (October 2009 to August 2011); Michael Barratt, MD, and then subsequently Robert Behnken and Eric Boe	Whitson was the first woman and first non-pilot to serve as Chief Astronaut. She resigned when she went back on active flight status.
14	Robert Behnken	July 2012	July 2015	Eric Boe	Behnken and Boe both returned to flight status, working on the Commercial Crew vehicle.
15	Christopher Cassidy	July 2015	June 2017	Patrick Forrester	Cassidy returned to flight status to await a future mission.
16	Patrick Forrester	June 2017	present	Reid Wiseman