Yesterday it was announced by Vanessa Wyche, Johnson Space Center Director that Scott Tingle had become the new Chief of the Astronaut Corps/Office taking over from Joe Acaba who is now “technical advisor for mission and strategy” at JSC.
It was not discussed that Joe Acaba would be leaving. When previous chief Reid Wiseman left a USA jobs posting had been announced letting the wider audience know that a new chief would be chosen from the astronaut corps. Nonetheless, Scott Tingles announcement has chief also turns some heads as he was currently assigned to the Starliner-1 mission as commander. When an active astronaut becomes chief they move over from the active astronaut corps to the management corps meaning that Scott Tingle would no longer be assigned to Starliner-1 or any mission until he resigns as chief.
Scott Tingle (60), was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts and had been chosen as an astronaut in 2009. Before becoming an astronaut he was a captain in the United States Navy flying fighter jets such as the F/A-18C Hornet and EA-18G Growler. Tingle was to Expedition 53/54 in 2016 launching abroad Soyuz MS-07 as a flight engineer alongside Commander Aton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and flight engineer Norishige Kanai of JAXA. Tingle spent 168 days aboard the International Space Station conducting 1 EVA lasting 7 hours and 24 minutes. Landing back on earth in 2018 Tingle had gone back to flight duty until his selection to command Starliner-1 in September 2022, which had been plagued with various delays after BOE-CFT.
While we wait for official confirmation from NASA over this appointment when the government is funded we can start to infer what this means for now former chief Joe Acaba. One of the major duties of the chief is to make flight crew selections meaning they, alongside staff help choose which astronauts fly where and when. This unique power allows chiefs to assign themselves high priority missions before leaving office. Reid Wiseman assigned himself Artemis II commander, Chris Cassidy assigned himself on Soyuz MS-16, Bob Behnken assigned himself part of the Commercial Crew astronaut program (SpaceX Demo-2), etc. Does this mean that Acaba has assigned himself to the most prestigious mission of the 21st century, Artemis III? It’s unclear, but with a few months left until Artemis II launches the crew of Artemis III could be announced at any point in 2026.
Scott Tingle will now serve alongside Deputy Chief Astronaut Nicole Mann who become deputy in the summer of 2025. The first decisions of Tingle’s command will most likely be crew assignments for Crew-13, Starliner-1, and Soyuz MS-30.