Amit Kshatriya

Amit Kshatriya is NASA’s associate administrator, serving as the highest-ranking civil servant at the agency and chief operating officer. Kshatriya leads the agency’s 10 center directors at NASA Headquarters in Washington and serves as the NASA chief engineer, advising the administrator on the technical readiness and execution of NASA programs and projects. 

Kshatriya previously served as the deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars Program in the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate (ESDMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. In that role, Kshatriya was responsible for program planning and implementation for human missions to the Moon and Mars. He directed and led the programs to ensure Artemis and Mars planning, development, and operations were consistent with ESDMD requirements, and served as the single point of focus for risk management.

Beginning his time at the space agency in 2003, he has worked as a software engineer, robotics engineer, and spacecraft operator primarily focused on the robotic assembly of the International Space Station. From 2014 to 2017, he served as a space station flight director, where he led global teams in the operations and execution of the space station during all phases of flight. From 2017 to 2021, he became deputy, and then acting manager, of the ISS Vehicle Office, where he was responsible for sustaining engineering, logistics, and hardware program management. In 2021, he was assigned to NASA Headquarters as an assistant deputy associate administrator for ESDMD, where he was an integral part of the team that returned a spacecraft designed to carry humans to the Moon during the Artemis I mission. 

Kshatriya holds a bachelor of science in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, and a master of arts in mathematics from The University of Texas at Austin. He was born in Brookfield, Wisconsin, but considers Katy, Texas, to be his hometown. He and his wife are the proud parents of three children, and he is also the proud son of first-generation Indian immigrants to the United States. 

Decorated with the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal for actions as the lead flight director for the 50th expedition to the space station, Kshatriya also is the recipient of a Silver Snoopy, an award astronauts bestow for outstanding performance contributing to flight safety, for his actions as lead robotics officer for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Dragon demonstration mission to the orbiting laboratory.