In a characteristically low-key move that somehow manages to involve billion-dollar telescopes and theoretical dark matter, NASA announced this week that Dr. Nicola Fox has been promoted from running the space agency’s heliophysics division to leading all of its science endeavors. Which, in layperson’s terms, means she now oversees the pursuit of answers to pretty much every question humanity has about the universe, ranging from whether Mars was ever wet to how the Sun manages to stay so smugly radiant.
Dr. Fox replaces Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, who left a few months back, presumably to take a nap after six years of maneuvering through tight budgets, tighter congressional oversight and the occasional hiccup in multi-billion-dollar space missions. Zurbuchen, it should be noted, was not just the longest-serving science chief in NASA history but also the one who launched more missions than even a very enthusiastic Elon Musk could dream of in a weekend.
Fox, who previously led the Parker Solar Probe mission that has been routinely risked next to the Sun’s corona for the scientific equivalent of a tan, is expected to bring both passion and nerve to her new post. Given that her last job involved flinging a probe at the Sun, one suspects that committee meetings at headquarters will feel like a mild sabbatical.
Meanwhile, Dr. Sandra Connelly has been tapped to serve as acting head of the science mission directorate while Fox transitions. Connelly previously managed NASA’s research into water on the Moon, so at least she is used to finding hard-to-spot resources in lonely, barren environments, which could come in handy during Washington budget talks.
With Fox at the helm, NASA’s scientific ventures are likely to keep pushing boundaries, chasing mysteries and occasionally touching the Sun, all while pretending it is just part of the job description.
The universe may one day stop expanding but NASA’s curiosity under Fox certainly will not.