Top NASA Administrator to Step Down

Helped develop President Obama's space policies

As lawmakers in Washington continue to wrangle over NASA's financing and expeditions, a top administrator at the agency who played a large role in drafting the Obama administration's controversial space policies is bowing out.

Lori B. Garver, NASA's deputy administrator for the past four years, will leave next month to take the top staff position at the Air Line Pilots Association, a union representing 50,000 pilots in the United States and Canada.

"It's time to take on new challenges," Ms. Garver said in an interview Tuesday. "I feel like I've accomplished so many of the objectives I set out to do here."