Stay Connected
NASA Leadership
At NASA Headquarters in Washington, Jim Bridenstine is the agency administrator. Thomas Zurbuchen is the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. Lori Glaze is the director of the Planetary Science Division. Jim Watzin is the director of the Mars Exploration Program and Michael Meyer is the chief scientist for Mars Exploration.
Mars 2020
Perseverance Mission
George Tahu is the program executive and Mitch Schulte is the program scientist for the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission at NASA Headquarters.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and will manage operations for the Perseverance rover for the Science Mission Directorate. At JPL, John McNamee is the Mars 2020 Perseverance project manager and Matt Wallace is the deputy project manager. Ken Farley of Caltech is the project scientist. Katie Stack Morgan and Ken Williford of JPL are the deputy project scientists.
NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management. For Mars 2020 Perseverance launch services, Omar Baez is the launch director and John Calvert is the mission manager.
For more detail on team members, visit the Mars 2020 mission team page.
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter
Technology Demonstration
At NASA Headquarters, Dave Lavery is the program executive for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.
At JPL, MiMi Aung is the project manager and Bob Balaram is chief engineer. JPL built and will manage operations for Ingenuity.