NASA’s Former Head of Science on What It Takes to Manage Complex, High-Risk Projects

Harvard Business Review

01 November 2023

As the head of science at NASA, Thomas Zurbuchen managed an $8.6 billion dollar budget. A typical Monday, for him, might have involved hitting an asteroid with a space craft or trying to launch a rocket. Zurbuchen left that role in 2022, but he’s still the longest continually serving head of science in NASA’s history. He and his team accomplished a lot in that time. In this episode, he shares what he learned about leading extremely technical, complex, and expensive projects with a high risk of failure.