Bhavya Lal, the Indian-American appointed as NASA’s acting chief of staff,
will be responsible for the day-to-day operations at NASA’s headquarters and will work towards shaping the strategic direction of the space agency.
Bhavya contributed a lot in making space tourism a reality.
She once quoted India in the summer 2016 issue of the journal Issues in Science and Technology and noted that in the next 10-15 years, the US government might not be the principal hub of the space community.
In same article, she said that space ambitions were no longer restricted to major space-faring nations, but included countries such as India, Israel. South Korea, the UK and Singapore which started showing growing expertise in space exploration and in technology development.
She wrote on the progress made by private companies such as SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin to make this space tourism a reality.