Clayton Turner has been selected as the next director of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Monday. Turner joined NASA in 1990 as a design engineer with the Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment project and has served as Langley’s deputy director since 2015. He will replace David Bowles, who is retiring on Sept. 30 after 39 years with NASA.
“Clayton’s wide range of engineering and leadership experience will serve Langley and the agency well as our Artemis program works to send astronauts to the Moon by 2024 to prepare to go to Mars,” said Bridenstine. “I also want to thank David for four decades of public service from Langley, where he addressed the challenges associated with space and air travel, as well as developing future aviation vehicles.”
Turner has a Bachelor of Science Degree in electrical engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He has worked on NASA projects including the Space Shuttle Program Return-to-Flight, the flight test of the Ares 1-X rocket and the flight test of the Orion Launch Abort System. According to NASA, the Langley Research Center employs approximately 3,400 civil servants and contractors who “work to make revolutionary improvements to aviation, expand understanding of Earth’s atmosphere, and develop technology for space exploration.”
