Kathleen Karika - NASA

Kathleen Karika is NASA’s associate administrator for the Office of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR). The office provides executive leadership and coordination for all NASA international and interagency activities and partnerships, oversees policy interactions between NASA and other U.S.

Executive Branch offices and agencies, and administers export control. She also serves as the agency’s senior accountable officer for the White House’s Made in America Council. Karika joined NASA in 2025 after 15 years in the U.S. commercial space industry, where she led international business development teams and engaged across the U.S.

government and with allies and partners on commercial, civil, and national security space missions. Most recently, she served as director of Research Operations at Virgin Galactic, managing business development for suborbital microgravity research missions for U.S.

United States

kathleen karika, nasa, oiir, associate administrator, international relations, interagency relations, export control, commercial space, virgin galactic, microgravity research