NASA announced Friday that Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro would be retiring after nearly two decades with the agency.
Petro took over as acting NASA administrator after Bill Nelson stepped down at the end of the Biden administration. She held the position during the tumultuous first months of the Trump administration that threatened layoffs amid a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) assessment, and severe cuts to the agency’s budget.
Petro held the interim role from January-July before giving way to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who held the position until the Senate confirmed Jared Isaacman as the new administrator in December.
“From the outset of her distinguished tenure at NASA, Janet has served as a profoundly influential leader, guiding both the agency and our Kennedy Space Center through some of the most significant transitions in our shared history, including playing a central role in reshaping NASA Kennedy into the nation’s premier multiuser spaceport,” Isaacman in a press release.
“As NASA has been charged, once again, with accomplishing the near impossible, I’m grateful for Janet for always embracing the challenge of discovering what could be and for pushing the boundaries to deliver the missions that enable NASA to lead the way into a new era of space.”
Petro was the 11th person to lead the space center taking over from Bob Cabana in 2021, becoming the first woman to lead the center since it was established in 1962. She oversaw the launches of both Artemis I in 2022 and this year’s Artemis II mission.
The man who took over for Petro during her run as NASA administrator was her KSC deputy director Kelvin Manning. He once again takes over the role of leading KSC as its acting director as of Friday with Petro’s announcement.
Before joining NASA in 2007, Petro had worked with the Science Applications International Corporation and McDonnell Douglas Aerospace Corporation.
She graduated from from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army. She also received a master’s in business administration from Boston University’s Metropolitan College.
She became a deputy director at KSC in 2007, working at the same place her father did. He had moved the family from Michigan to the Space Coast to work on the Mercury and Gemini programs.
Petro grew up in Satellite Beach, where she attended Surfside Elementary, DeLaura Middle and Satellite High.
“Having grown up on Florida’s Space Coast and being the second generation in my family to work at Kennedy Space Center, it’s truly exciting to help grow the multi-user spaceport,” she had said in 2021 after taking over the director role permanently.