Former NASA chief of staff returns to lead agency launch operations

WASHINGTON — NASA’s former chief of staff has returned to the agency in a new role overseeing launch operations, a move that raised some concerns on Capitol Hill.

NASA announced May 8 that it had appointed Brian Hughes as senior director of launch operations, based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The position, the agency said, will oversee launch operations at KSC and Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

“Brian brings a unique combination of operational expertise, strategic leadership and public service experience at the highest levels of government,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in the statement announcing the hiring of Hughes. “His track record leading complex organizations and executing high-stakes missions makes him exceptionally well-suited to help shape the future of NASA’s launch operations as we accelerate into a new era of exploration and innovation.”

The appointment is a return to the agency for Hughes, who served as chief of staff from May to December 2025. After leaving the agency at the end of last year, he became a partner at Mercury Public Affairs, leading that political consulting company’s office in Tallahassee, Florida.

Hughes has an extensive political and management background, but little space experience. Before going to NASA the first time, he was deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, and was a policy and communications adviser on President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign. Earlier in his career, he was chief administrative officer of the city of Jacksonville, Florida, and chief of staff to that city’s mayor.

NASA said that, in his new role, Hughes will work with government and industry officials “to strengthen coordination among stakeholders supporting NASA’s spaceports” and increase launch cadence to support the Trump administration’s national space policy.

His lack of space industry, and specifically launch, experience has prompted concerns both inside and outside the agency. That includes perceptions that his appointment would make him effectively the leader of KSC as well as Wallops, a facility currently managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center.

“I am deeply concerned that Brian Hughes, a political hack that has a proven record of harming the agency, has been named the de facto director of Kennedy Space Center at such a critical time of global consequence for NASA and our leadership in space exploration,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., ranking member of the House Science Committee, said in a May 8 statement.

“We are not going to beat China to the moon by putting a political operative in charge of launching our astronauts into space,” she added. “Brian Hughes does not possess the background, knowledge, expertise or temperament to hold a position of such immense responsibility.”

KSC had been led since 2021 by Janet Petro, who also served as acting NASA administrator from January to July 2025, overlapping with Hughes. NASA announced May 1 that Petro was retiring and would be replaced on an acting basis by her deputy, Kelvin Manning.

Isaacman, on social media, defended having Hughes manage both KSC and Wallops launch facilities, saying “it just makes sense to have launch complexes, like KSC and Wallops, managed by a launch center instead of a science center.”

“We are seeing unprecedented demand for launch across commercial, scientific and national security missions, with many stakeholders across industry and the political landscape,” he wrote. “There are challenges to solve, which will require getting all parties aligned to enable the launch cadence and realize the opportunities in the years ahead.”

Very little of that launch demand, though, goes through launch facilities run by NASA. Most launches from Florida take place from launch pads at neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. At KSC, Launch Complex 39B is used for the Space Launch System, which has flown twice to date, while SpaceX leases Launch Complex 39A that is now exclusively used for Falcon Heavy and, later, Starship.

In January, NASA issued an announcement for proposals for use of Launch Complex 48, a flat pad located between Launch Complex 39 and Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 41 that is intended for use by small launch vehicles. Proposals were due April 10, but NASA announced May 6 it had terminated the announcement, without further explanation.

At Wallops, most of the orbital launch facilities there are owned and operated by the Virginia Spaceport Authority, a state agency that is a tenant of NASA. That includes launch pads for Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket and Rocket Lab’s Electron and Neutron rockets.

Hughes, speaking in his role as NASA chief of staff at the Global Aerospace Summit in September, said that while he did not have much space industry experience, he had a lifelong interest in space.

“At three and a half years old I had my first visit to Kennedy Space Center. Between that, Estes rockets and Star Wars, this is the culmination of a dream,” he said of serving as NASA chief of staff. “My Star Wars fan club thinks I’m the coolest guy.”