NASA's space shuttle director, Bryan O'Connor, abruptly announced his resignation Friday.
In a brief written statement, the two-time shuttle flier said he was leaving NASA at the end of this month to pursue other interests. He did not elaborate."The current transition under way in the shuttle program management presents an occasion for me to leave NASA without causing a significant disruption," O'Connor said.
O'Connor, 49, piloted shuttle Atlantis in 1985 and commanded a medical-research flight by Columbia in 1991 before going into shuttle management. He has been with NASA 16 years.
Last month, the chief of NASA's space flight program, Wayne Littles, announced he was leaving his job at NASA headquarters in Washington to become director of Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Littles and O'Connor had been spearheading the switch to a single prime contractor in charge of shuttle operations.