“I want to work on that as they start building its foundation because that signals exactly what I care about: building the future of the technical workforce leaders,” he said. “So this is really amazing timing.”

According to NASA, Wiseman also plans to use his emeritus status to continue sharing his spaceflight experience with his now-former colleagues ahead of the Artemis III mission, targeted for no earlier than mid-2027. The Artemis III crew will test Orion’s rendezvous and docking capabilities with commercial human landing systems in low-Earth orbit.

Space between active and former

Historically, when astronauts wanted to join private industry, run for public office, or return to military service, they retired from NASA. If they wanted to remain at the space agency but were no longer eligible for a flight assignment, either temporarily or permanently, they were categorized as management astronauts.

There have been other exceptions, though.

Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter took a leave from NASA to briefly become an aquanaut. From August to September 1965, he lived on the ocean floor in the Navy’s SEALAB II. He then returned to the space agency, though due in part to an arm injury he sustained while away, he worked in management positions until he resigned in 1967.

Edward Gibson, who flew on the third and last Skylab mission in 1974, resigned from NASA after returning to Earth. Three years later, he returned to the astronaut office as chief of the scientist-astronaut candidates. He had hoped to fly another mission, but ultimately retired from the agency again in 1982.

Similarly, Tony England was selected as a scientist-astronaut in 1967, but left five years later due to the lack of available flight assignments. England returned as a mission specialist in 1979 and flew on STS-51F, a 1985 Spacelab mission aboard the space shuttle Challenger. He retired from NASA for the second time in 1988.