NASA · Wednesday, October 14, 2026
NASA names astronaut Christina Koch acting deputy chief engineer
The File desk · Oct 14, 2026, 10:51 AM UTC
Status
Confirmed as NASA’s release of Oct. 13, 2026. She starts Nov. 1. The job takes her out of the flight rotation.
NASA said Tuesday that astronaut Christina Koch will be the agency’s acting deputy chief engineer starting Nov. 1. She replaces Katherine Van Hooser, who retires Oct. 21 after more than 35 years. Koch will move to management-astronaut status, which means she will not be assigned to another flight. NASA says she spent 328 days on the space station, the longest single flight by a woman, and flew on Artemis II in April.
The release is dated Oct. 13, 2026. In the new job Koch will help lead NASA’s engineers, including technical oversight and whether missions are ready to fly.
Administrator Jared Isaacman said she has worked on systems on the ground and trusted them in space. Associate administrator Amit Kshatriya, who is also chief engineer, thanked Van Hooser and said he is confident Koch will continue that work. Those sentences are theirs.
Koch started at NASA as an electrical engineer at Goddard Space Flight Center, building instruments. She was selected as an astronaut in 2013. Before that she did field engineering in Antarctica and the Arctic. Van Hooser joined in 1991 at Marshall Space Flight Center and later was chief engineer for the space-shuttle main engine through the last 21 shuttle flights. She has been deputy chief engineer since 2023.
What is still unknown or disputed
- Who, if anyone, is named to the job permanently. The announcement says acting.
- Whether the Nov. 1 start slips. The release states that date.
Primary sources
Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.
Source 1
NASA Names Astronaut Christina Koch Acting Deputy Chief Engineer
NASA · October 13, 2026
Christina Koch will serve as acting deputy chief engineer beginning Sunday, Nov. 1, following the retirement of Katherine Van Hooser on Wednesday, Oct. 21. Koch will transition to management astronaut status and will no longer be eligible for future spaceflight assignments.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-names-astronaut-christina-koch-acting-deputy-chief-engineer/