WASHINGTON ­— Edward Mango, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, has stepped down from his position and will be replaced on an acting basis by his deputy, Kathryn Lueders, a NASA spokesman confirmed Oct. 29.

Mango is “stepping down from his position to tend to personal matters, effective as of Oct. 21,” NASA spokesman Trent Perrotto wrote in an email. Mango, a 27-year NASA veteran, has been reassigned to the office of Kennedy’s deputy center director, Perrotto said.

The Commercial Crew Program Office at Kennedy has experienced some churn this year, with Lueders coming onboard in February after former astronaut Brent Jett, her predecessor as deputy program manager, retired from NASA. 

Mango’s departure was first reported by the news and rumors site NASAWatch.com.

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Dan Leone is the NASA reporter for SpaceNews, where he also covers other civilian-run U.S. government space programs and a growing number of entrepreneurial space companies. He joined SpaceNews in 2011.Dan earned a bachelor's degree in public communications...