{"id":11688,"date":"2021-05-12T20:26:26","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T12:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/long-time-kennedy-space-center-director-to-take-job-at-nasa-headquarters\/"},"modified":"2021-05-12T20:26:26","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T12:26:26","slug":"long-time-kennedy-space-center-director-to-take-job-at-nasa-headquarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/long-time-kennedy-space-center-director-to-take-job-at-nasa-headquarters\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-time Kennedy Space Center director to take job at NASA Headquarters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Bob Cabana, director of NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center, speaks to employees in 2020. Credit: NASA\/Glenn Benson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Former space shuttle commander Bob Cabana, who has led NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center since 2008, will take a new job in Washington as the space agency\u2019s No. 3 official next week.<\/p>\n

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Cabana\u2019s appointment as the agency\u2019s associate administrator this week. Cabana will start in his new position Monday, replacing outgoing associate administrator Steve Jurczyk, who has announced his retirement after serving as NASA\u2019s acting administrator until the Senate confirmed Nelson as the new agency head.<\/p>\n

\u201cBob has a relentless determination to expand America\u2019s role in space,\u201d Nelson said in a statement. \u201cUnder his leadership, Kennedy has emerged as a modern, world class multi-user spaceport, partnering with commercial customers and supporting NASA\u2019s science and human exploration missions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cabana, 72, will be the senior civil servant at NASA, effectively taking the No. 3 position in the agency\u2019s management structure under Nelson and NASA\u2019s deputy administrator. President Joe Biden has nominated Pam Melroy, another former space shuttle commander, to be NASA\u2019s next deputy administrator.<\/p>\n

\u201cBob is the real deal \u2013 he has the vision and management skills to bring NASA to even higher heights,\u201d Nelson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m honored to have been selected by Sen. Nelson to serve as associate administrator of NASA,\u201d Cabana said in a statement. \u201cBill and I have a shared passion for America\u2019s space program, and I look forward to serving NASA and our nation in this new capacity. As much as I am going to miss the incredible team at Kennedy, I can\u2019t wait to take on this new challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cabana, a retired Marine Corps colonel and test pilot, was selected to join NASA\u2019s astronaut corps in 1985 and flew on four space shuttle missions, logging 38 days in space. He piloted the STS-41 and STS-53 missions in 1990 and 1992, and commanded the STS-65 and STS-88 missions in 1994 and 1998.<\/p>\n

His last spaceflight in 1998 aboard the space shuttle Endeavour was the first U.S. mission to assemble the International Space Station, joining the U.S.-built Unity module with the Russian-built Zarya module.<\/p>\n

During his tenure at the Kennedy Space Center, Cabana oversaw a team of thousands of government and contractor employees during the final years of the space shuttle program. He led the spaceport through a transition to a new era of commercial spaceflight and managed Kennedy as teams prepared for the Artemis moon program.<\/p>\n

The first unpiloted test flight of NASA\u2019s huge Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket could occur before the end of this year, ahead of future crewed lunar missions.<\/p>\n

Janet Petro, Cabana\u2019s deputy at Kennedy, will take over as acting director of the space center after Cabana\u2019s departure to NASA Headquarters.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Cabana, director of NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center, speaks to employees in 2020. Credit: NASA\/Glenn Benson Former space shuttle commander Bob Cabana, who has led NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center since 2008, will take a new job in Washington as the space agency\u2019s No. 3 official next week. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced Cabana\u2019s appointment as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1710,1727,428,190,1728,1729],"class_list":["post-11688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-bill-nelson","tag-bob-cabana","tag-kennedy-space-center","tag-nasa","tag-nasa-headquarters","tag-steve-jurczyk"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}