NASA Names New CIO

NASA has appointed Larry Sweet to become its new chief information officer. Sweet, who has a long history with the NASA's Johnson Space Center, replaces Linda Cureton, who retired in April.

Sweet joined NASA in 1987 at the Johnson Space Center, working as supervisor and manager for more than 26 years. Since 2007, Sweet has served as CIO and information resources director of NASA's Johnson Space Center. In that role he was responsible for managing the JSC Information Resources (IR) program, which defines policies, processes, requirements and standards.

Sweet will assume his new position on June 30. As CIO, he will be responsible for NASA's IT efforts, including the Information Technology Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P), a long-term, multi-billion dollar IT transformation project. Additionally, he will ensure NASA's information assets are in line with federal policies, procedures and legislation, according to the agency.

[ NASA is looking for fresh ideas on how to protect the planet from asteroids. Read NASA Wants You To Stop Asteroids. ]

Former NASA CIO Cureton had most recently focused on I3P and a series of IT services contracts valued at more than $4 billion. She also managed NASA's IT centralization and consolidation efforts, and had a hand in IT projects at NASA's space centers.

After Cureton's departure, Richard Keegan stepped in as acting CIO. Keegan had worked at the Department of Energy and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center before joining NASA's headquarters in 2002.