NASA’s Ethics Program

NASA’s Ethics Program provides training and counsel to NASA employees and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the agency-wide ethics program. Headquarters and Center Chief Counsels ethics officials support the ethics program in their respective localities.

A list of ethics officials at each NASA location can be found here: Headquarters and Center Ethics Officials.

Associate General Counsel, General Law Practice Group:
Katie Spear

Agency Counsel for Ethics:
Adam Greenstone

Current Employees

NASA employees have a responsibility to the United States Government and its citizens to place loyalty to the Constitution, laws, and ethics principles above private gain. As NASA employees, we need you to preserve NASA’s core value of integrity through your commitment to ethics and ethical decision-making. If you are faced with a question concerning your ethics obligations as a NASA employee, please contact a NASA ethics official before taking action.

Deferred Resignation and Ethics FAQs

NASA employees who participate in the Office of Personnel Management’s Deferred Resignation Program remain subject to the ethics laws. Please click HERE for frequently asked questions related to the applicable ethics rules and regulations.

Contact Information

What are your obligations? Know the rules. If you have questions, please ask an ethics official at your respective center.

• Headquarters and Center Ethics Officials

Financial Disclosure

As a NASA employee, you may be required to disclose your financial interests for one of two reasons: 1) You are in a position requiring by law that you file a Public Financial Disclosure (OGE Form 278)(PDF) report.  This includes members of the Senior Executive Service (SES); SL or ST employees; holding another position classified above the GS-15 level; holding a “NASA excepted” position above a certain pay level; and Schedule C appointees.  2) Your duties are such that they raise an increased likelihood of a conflict of interest, for which you would file an (OGE Form 450)(PDF) report. If you are in a position subject to Public Financial Disclosure (or acting in one for more than 60 days), then you are subject to the Public Financial Disclosure report in which your report will be publicly available. If you are a General Schedule or other employee required to file OGE Form 450, your financial disclosure requirements will be less complex, and report will be confidential. For specific questions, please contact an ethics official.

Widely Attended Gatherings Determinations

Please click here to access the latest Widely Attended Gatherings Determinations.  If you do not see a determination for the event in which you were invited to attend in your official capacity, please request guidance from your local ethics official.

• Widely Attended Gatherings (WAGs) Determinations

Outside Activities

NASA employees are subject to regulations regarding outside employment. They are prohibited from engaging in outside activities that conflict with their official duties.  In addition, the NASA Supplemental Standards of Ethical Conduct for NASA Employees, 5 C.F.R. Part 6901, require prior approval for engaging in certain types of outside employment. In these instances, employees should request approval from their local ethics official prior to accepting such outside employment.

Note that the NASA Supplemental rules also prohibit NASA employees from engaging in outside employment with a NASA contractor, subcontractor, or grantee in connection with work performed by that entity for NASA; or a party to a Space Act Agreement, Commercial Launch Act agreement, or other agreement to which NASA is a party pursuant to specific statutory authority, if the employment is in connection with work performed under that agreement. 

Employees in a leave status are subject to the same legal parameters. 

Please reach out to your local ethics official for guidance.

Resources

• 14 General Principles, Office of Government Ethics
• Criminal Conflicts of Interest, Summary for Executive Brand Employees
• Introduction to the Standards of Ethical Conduct, Summary for Executive Branch Employees
• Standards of Ethics Conduct for Executive Branch Employees
• Supplemental Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Hatch Act, Office of Special Counsel

Prospective Employees

We look forward to welcoming you to NASA! You are joining an organization that works to change the history of humanity and usher in a bold new era or discovery.  We are depending on you to maintain the public trust and to preserve NASA’s ethical culture. Accordingly, NASA employees must comply with ethical standards that relate to outside employment, political activities, and business relationships, among other topics. NASA encourages prospective employees to learn more about these ethical standards along the path of joining our team. If ethics questions arise before or after you join NASA, please contact a NASA ethics official before taking action. What are your obligations? Know the rules. If you have questions, please ask an ethics official at your respective location.

• Headquarters and Center Ethics Officials

Financial Disclosure

As a NASA employee, you may be required to disclose your financial interests for one of two reasons: 1) You are in a position requiring by law that you file a Public Financial Disclosure (OGE Form 278)(PDF) report.  This includes members of the Senior Executive Service (SES); SL or ST employees; holding another position classified above the GS-15 level; holding a “NASA excepted” position above a certain pay level; and Schedule C appointees.  2) Your duties are such that they raise an increased likelihood of a conflict of interest, for which you would file an (OGE Form 450)(PDF) report. If you are in a position subject to Public Financial Disclosure (or acting in one for more than 60 days), then you are subject to the Public Financial Disclosure report in which your report will be publicly available. If you are a General Schedule or other employee required to file OGE Form 450, your financial disclosure requirements will be less complex, and your report will be confidential. For specific questions, please contact an ethics official.

Resources

• 14 General Principles, Office of Government Ethics
• Criminal Conflicts of Interest, Summary for Executive Brand Employees
• Introduction to the Standards of Ethical Conduct, Summary for Executive Branch Employees
• Standards of Ethics Conduct for Executive Branch Employees
• Supplemental Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Hatch Act, Office of Special Counsel

Former Employees

The post-government employment ethics statute, 18 U.S.C. § 207, applies to a former NASA employee’s communication with NASA or the Government on behalf of the former employee’s non-federal employer. Former NASA employees should contact a NASA ethics official for advice before communications or otherwise interacting with NASA or the Government on behalf of their new employer because this criminal statute may be implicated.  The Procurement Integrity Act also restricts individuals who were in certain contracting roles from accepting compensated work from certain contractors for a limited period. 

Contact Information

If you have questions, please ask an ethics official at your respective center.

• Headquarters and Center Ethics Officials

Special Government Employees

A Special Government Employee (SGE) is an officer or employee “who is retained, designated, appointed, or employed to perform, with or without compensation, for not to exceed one hundred and thirty days during any consecutive period of three hundred and sixty-five consecutive days.” 18 U.S.C. § 202. Congress created the SGE category in 1962 to allow the federal Government to obtain the expertise it needs, while allowing experts to continue their private professional lives. As a result, some of the ethics statutes and regulations apply differently to SGEs than they do to regular executive branch employees, and some provisions do not apply at all.

Financial Disclosure

SGEs are required to file a financial disclosure report each year, usually a confidential financial disclosure report (OGE-450). Financial disclosure reporting helps NASA identify any possible financial conflicts of interest. SGEs are notified in advance of when to file.

• Sample Confidential Financial Disclosure Report, Office of Government Ethics
• Confidential Financial Disclosure Guide, Office of Government Ethics
• Video on how to Complete a New Entrant Confidential Financial Disclosure Report
• Video on how to Complete an Annual Financial Disclosure Report

Ethics Training

SGEs are required to receive annual ethics training by December 31^st of each calendar year.

Contact Information

If you are a SGE and have questions, please contact the Headquarters Ethics Team by e-mail at hq-ethicsteam@nasa.gov or by phone at (202) 358-0550.

Resources

• 14 General Principles, Office of Government Ethics
• Criminal Conflicts of Interest, Summary for Executive Brand Employees
• Introduction to the Standards of Ethical Conduct, Summary for Executive Branch Employees
• Standards of Ethics Conduct for Executive Branch Employees
• Supplemental Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Contact

Office of the General Counsel
NASA Headquarters
300 E Street SW Suite 9V30
Washington, DC 20546
Phone Number (202) 358-2450

OGC Disclaimer: The materials within this website do not constitute legal advice. For details read our disclaimer.

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Justyna M. Ragiel-Smith

NASA Names Stephen Koerner as Acting Director of Johnson Space Center

NASA has selected Stephen Koerner as acting director of Johnson Space Center. Koerner previously served as Johnson’s deputy director.

“It is an honor to accept my new role as acting director for Johnson,” Koerner said. “Our employees are key to our nation’s human spaceflight goals. I am continually impressed with what our workforce accomplishes and am proud to be named the leader of such an incredible team dedicated to mission excellence.”

Koerner previously served as deputy director of NASA Johnson beginning in July 2021, overseeing strategic workforce planning, serving as Designated Agency Safety Health Officer (DASHO), and supporting the Johnson Center Director in mission reviews. Before his appointment to deputy director, Koerner served as director of the Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) for two years. In that role, he was responsible for selecting and protecting astronauts, and for the planning, training, and execution of human space flight and aviation missions. He managed an annual budget of $367 million, 600 civil servants and military personnel, and 2300 contractor personnel.  He oversaw the Astronaut Office, the Flight Director Office, the Mission Control Center, human spaceflight training facilities, and Johnson’s Aviation Operations Division. During this tenure he was also responsible for FOD’s flight readiness of the first commercial human spaceflight mission, ushering in a new era of domestic launch capability and the return of American astronauts launching from American soil. 

Prior to assuming his position as director of Flight Operations, Koerner served in several senior executive roles, including:

• Johnson Space Center Associate Director from 2018 to 2019
• Johnson Space Center Chief Financial Officer (CFO) from 2017 to 2018
• Deputy Director of Flight Operations from 2014 to 2017
• Deputy Director Mission Operations from 2007 to 2014

Koerner joined Johnson full-time in 1992. He has extensive operations experience including serving as an environmental systems space shuttle flight controller, where he supported 41 space shuttle flights in Mission Control. Since that time, he has served in a series of progressively more responsible positions, including lead for two International Space Station flight control groups, chief of the space station’s Data Systems Flight Control Branch, chief of the Mission Operations Directorate’s Management Integration Office, and as the Mission Operation Directorate’s manager for International Space Station operations.

Additional special assignments throughout his career include:

• Project manager for Johnson’s Crew Exploration Vehicle Avionics Integration Lab (June 2007 –June 2008)
• Member of NASA’s Human Exploration Framework Team (April 2010 –October 2010)
• Member of NASA’s Standing Review Board that provided an independent assessment at life cycle review milestones for the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Program, the Space Launch System Program and the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program (October 2011 – August 2014)
• Lead of NASA’s Mission Operations Capability Team (October 2015 –April 2017)

“Steve has an accomplished career serving human spaceflight. His vision and dedication to the Johnson workforce makes him the perfect person to lead the Johnson team forward as acting director,” said Vanessa Wyche, NASA acting associate administrator. “Steve is an asset to the center and the agency—as both a proven technical expert and a leader.”

Throughout his career, Koerner has been recognized for outstanding technical achievements and leadership, receiving two Superior Accomplishment Awards, the Outstanding Leadership Medal, the Johnson Space Center Director’s Commendation Award, two group achievement awards, the Exceptional Service Medal, and the Presidential Rank Award.

Koerner is a native of Stow, Ohio. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Akron in Ohio, and a master’s degree in business administration from LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas.

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Andrea Dunn

NASA’s X-59 Completes Electromagnetic Testing

NASA’s quiet supersonic X-59 research aircraft has cleared electromagnetic testing, confirming its systems will work together safely, without interference across a range of scenarios.

“Reaching this phase shows that the aircraft integration is advancing,” said Yohan Lin, NASA’s X-59 avionics lead. “It’s exciting to see the progress, knowing we’ve cleared a major hurdle that moves us closer to X-59’s first flight.”

Electromagnetic interference occurs when an electric or magnetic field source affects an aircraft’s operations, potentially impacting safety. This interference, whether from an external source or the aircraft’s own equipment, can disrupt the electronic signals that control critical systems – similar to effects that lead to static or crackling on a radio from a nearby emitting device, like a phone.

The tests, conducted at contractor Lockheed Martin Skunk Works’ facility in Palmdale, California, ensured that the X-59’s onboard systems – such as radios, navigation equipment, and sensors – did not interfere with one another or cause unexpected problems. During these tests, engineers activated each system on the aircraft one at a time while they monitored the other systems for possible interference.

“This testing helped us determine whether the systems within the X-59 are interfering with each other,” Lin said. “It’s called a source-victim test – essentially, we activate one system and monitor the other for issues like noise, glitches, faults, or errors.”

The X-59 will generate a quieter thump rather than a loud boom while flying faster than the speed of sound. The aircraft is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which will provide regulators with information that could help lift current bans on commercial supersonic flight over land. Currently, the aircraft is progressing through ground tests to ensure safety and performance. These included the recent, successful completion of a set of engine tests. The electromagnetic interference testing to examine the X-59’s internal electronic systems followed.

Other electromagnetic interference testing involved the team looking at the operation of the X-59’s landing gear, ensuring this critical component can extend and retract without affecting other systems. And they tested that the fuel switch shutoff was functioning properly without interference.

Electromagnetic compatibility was also assessed during this testing – making sure the X-59’s systems will function properly when it eventually flies near NASA research aircraft.

Researchers staged the X-59 on the ground in front of NASA’s F-15D, placing them 47 feet apart, then 500 feet apart. The proximity of the two aircraft replicated conditions needed for the F-15D to use a special probe to gather measurements about the shock waves the X-59 will produce.

“We want to confirm there’s compatibility between the two aircraft, even at close proximity,” Lin said.

For the electromagnetic compatibility testing, the team powered up the X-59’s engine while turning on the F-15D’s radar, C-band radar transponder, and radios. Data from the X-59 were transmitted to NASA’s Mobile Operations Facility, where control room staff and engineers monitored for anomalies.

“You want to make discoveries of any potential electromagnetic interference or electromagnetic compatibility issues on the ground first,” Lin said. “This reduces risk and ensures we’re not learning about problems in the air.”

Now that electromagnetic testing is complete, the X-59 is ready to move on to aluminum bird tests – during which data will be fed to the aircraft on the ground under both normal and failure conditions – and then taxi tests before flight.

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NASA’s EZIE Launching to Study Magnetic Fingerprints of Earth’s Aurora

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NASA’s EZIE Launching to Study Magnetic Fingerprints of Earth’s Aurora

High above Earth’s poles, intense electrical currents called electrojets flow through the upper atmosphere when auroras glow in the sky. These auroral electrojets push about a million amps of electrical charge around the poles every second. They can create some of the largest magnetic disturbances on the ground, and rapid changes in the currents can lead to effects such as power outages. In March, NASA plans to launch its EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission to learn more about these powerful currents, in the hopes of ultimately mitigating the effects of such space weather for humans on Earth.

Results from EZIE will help NASA better understand the dynamics of the Earth-Sun connection and help improve predictions of hazardous space weather that can harm astronauts, interfere with satellites, and trigger power outages.

The EZIE mission includes three CubeSats, each about the size of a carry-on suitcase. These small satellites will fly in a pearls-on-a-string formation, following each other as they orbit Earth from pole to pole about 350 miles (550 kilometers) overhead. The spacecraft will look down toward the electrojets, which flow about 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the ground in an electrified layer of Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere.

During every orbit, each EZIE spacecraft will map the electrojets to uncover their structure and evolution. The spacecraft will fly over the same region 2 to 10 minutes apart from one another, revealing how the electrojets change.

Previous ground-based experiments and spacecraft have observed auroral electrojets, which are a small part of a vast electric circuit that extends 100,000 miles (160,000 kilometers) from Earth to space. But for decades, scientists have debated what the overall system looks like and how it evolves. The mission team expects EZIE to resolve that debate. 

“What EZIE does is unique,” said Larry Kepko, EZIE mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “EZIE is the first mission dedicated exclusively to studying the electrojets, and it does so with a completely new measurement technique.”

EZIE is the first mission dedicated exclusively to studying the electrojets.

Larry Kepko

EZIE mission scientist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

This technique involves looking at microwave emission from oxygen molecules about 10 miles (16 kilometers) below the electrojets. Normally, oxygen molecules emit microwaves at a frequency of 118 Gigahertz. However, the electrojets create a magnetic field that can split apart that 118 Gigahertz emission line in a process called Zeeman splitting. The stronger the magnetic field, the farther apart the line is split.

Each of the three EZIE spacecraft will carry an instrument called the Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram to observe the Zeeman effect and measure the strength and direction of the electrojets’ magnetic fields. Built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, each of these instruments will use four antennas pointed at different angles to survey the magnetic fields along four different tracks as EZIE orbits.

The technology used in the Microwave Electrojet Magnetograms was originally developed to study Earth’s atmosphere and weather systems. Engineers at JPL had reduced the size of the radio detectors so they could fit on small satellites, including NASA’s TEMPEST-D and CubeRRT missions, and improved the components that separate light into specific wavelengths.

The electrojets flow through a region that is difficult to study directly, as it’s too high for scientific balloons to reach but too low for satellites to dwell.

“The utilization of the Zeeman technique to remotely map current-induced magnetic fields is really a game-changing approach to get these measurements at an altitude that is notoriously difficult to measure,” said Sam Yee, EZIE’s principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

The mission is also including citizen scientists to enhance its research, distributing dozens of EZIE-Mag magnetometer kits to students in the U.S. and volunteers around the world to compare EZIE’s observations to those from Earth. “EZIE scientists will be collecting magnetic field data from above, and the students will be collecting magnetic field data from the ground,” said Nelli Mosavi-Hoyer, EZIE project manager at APL.

EZIE scientists will be collecting magnetic field data from above, and the students will be collecting magnetic field data from the ground.

Nelli Mosavi-Hoyer

EZIE project manager, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

The EZIE spacecraft will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California as part of the Transporter-13 rideshare mission with SpaceX via launch integrator Maverick Space Systems.

The mission will launch during what’s known as solar maximum — a phase during the 11-year solar cycle when the Sun’s activity is stronger and more frequent. This is an advantage for EZIE’s science.

“It’s better to launch during solar max,” Kepko said. “The electrojets respond directly to solar activity.”

The EZIE mission will also work alongside other NASA heliophysics missions, including PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere), launching in late February to study how material in the Sun’s outer atmosphere becomes the solar wind.

According to Yee, EZIE’s CubeSat mission not only allows scientists to address compelling questions that have not been able to answer for decades but also demonstrates that great science can be achieved cost-effectively.

“We’re leveraging the new capability of CubeSats,” Kepko added. “This is a mission that couldn’t have flown a decade ago. It’s pushing the envelope of what is possible, all on a small satellite. It’s exciting to think about what we will discover.”

The EZIE mission is funded by the Heliophysics Division within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA Goddard. APL leads the mission for NASA. Blue Canyon Technologies in Boulder, Colorado, built the CubeSats.

by Vanessa Thomas
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Header Image:
An artist’s concept shows the three EZIE satellites orbiting Earth.
Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

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NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Takes Its 1st Images of Asteroid Donaldjohanson

NASA’s Lucy spacecraft has its next flyby target, the small main belt asteroid  Donaldjohanson, in its sights. By blinking between images captured by Lucy on Feb. 20 and 22, this animation shows the perceived motion of Donaldjohanson relative to the background stars as the spacecraft rapidly approaches the asteroid.

Lucy will pass within 596 miles (960 km) of the 2-mile-wide asteroid on April 20. This second asteroid encounter for the Lucy spacecraft will serve as a dress-rehearsal for the spacecraft’s main targets, the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Lucy already successfully observed the tiny main belt asteroid Dinkinesh and its contact-binary moon, Selam, in November 2023. Lucy will continue to image Donaldjohanson over the next two months as part of its optical navigation program, which uses the asteroid’s apparent position against the star background to ensure an accurate flyby.

Donaldjohanson will remain an unresolved point of light during the spacecraft’s long approach and won’t start to show surface detail until the day of the encounter.

From a distance of 45 million miles (70 million km), Donaldjohanson is still dim, though it stands out clearly in this field of relatively faint stars in the constellation of Sextans. Celestial north is to the right of the frame, and the 0.11-degree field of view would correspond to 85,500 miles (140,000 km) at the distance of the asteroid. In the first of the two images, another dim asteroid can be seen photobombing in the lower right quadrant of the image. However, just as the headlights of an approaching car often appear relatively stationary, Donaldjohanson’s apparent motion between these two images is much smaller than that of this interloper, which has moved out of the field of view in the second image.

These observations were made by Lucy’s high-resolution camera, the L’LORRI instrument — short for Lucy LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager — provided by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

Asteroid Donaldjohanson is named for anthropologist Donald Johanson, who discovered the fossilized skeleton — called “Lucy” — of a human ancestor. NASA’s Lucy mission is named for the fossil.

Lucy’s principal investigator, Hal Levison, is based out of the Boulder, Colorado, branch of Southwest Research Institute, headquartered in San Antonio. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Lucy is the 13th mission in NASA’s Discovery Program. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Discovery Program for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

For more information about NASA’s Lucy mission, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/lucy

By Katherine Kretke
Southwest Research Institute

Media Contact:
Nancy N. Jones
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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Jamie Adkins