Nelson Promotes KSC’s Bob Cabana as NASA Associate Administrator
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA Administrator Sen. Bill Nelson announced Monday Robert D. Cabana, who has served as director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida since 2008, will serve as associate administrator effective Monday, May 17. Steve Jurczyk, who held the position since 2018, announced his retirement Monday.
“Bob has a relentless determination to expand America’s role in space. Under his leadership, Kennedy has emerged as a modern, world class multi-user spaceport, partnering with commercial customers and supporting NASA’s science and human exploration missions,” Nelson said. “Bob is the real deal – he has the vision and management skills to bring NASA to even higher heights.”
“I’m honored to have been selected by Sen. Nelson to serve as associate administrator of NASA,” Cabana said. “Bill and I have a shared passion for America’s 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’t wait to take on this new challenge.”
Nelson and Cabana first met in 1985 while Nelson was training to fly on the space shuttle and Cabana arrived at NASA as an astronaut candidate. At Kennedy, Cabana managed all NASA programs and activities at the spaceport, including the team of civil service and contractor employees who operate some of NASA’s most critical programs, including its Commercial Crew Program.
Cabana graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1971 with a degree in mathematics. He was commissioned in the U.S. Marine Corps and completed Naval Flight Officer training in Pensacola in 1972. He was designated a naval aviator in September 1976 and went on to log more than 7,000 hours of flight time in more than 50 different kinds of aircraft.
Janet Petro, who has served as deputy director of Kennedy since 2007, will serve as acting center director. Petro also was central to Kennedy’s transition to a multi-user spaceport, leading cross-agency initiatives with the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Air Force to streamline government processes, support commercial space operations, increase government efficiency, and limit redundancy.
Cabana will join a senior NASA Headquarters team including: Pam Melroy, nominee for deputy administrator; Margaret Vo Schaus, nominee for chief financial officer; Susie Perez Quinn, chief of staff; Bhavya Lal, senior advisor for budget and finance; Marc Etkind, associate administrator for communications; and Alicia Brown, associate administrator for legislative and intergovernmental affairs.
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17 responses to “Nelson Promotes KSC’s Bob Cabana as NASA Associate Administrator”
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From what I’ve read, Cabana did an absolutely great job at KSC. Definitely welcoming to commercial space
The problem is, usually HQ is a waste of good talent.
I had that thought, too. He seemed to be in the perfect position — hopefully we don’t get a Peter Principle situation here! Still, the dude definitely deserved a chance at a promotion if he wanted it
it will all depend on where Nelson wants to take the agency
Here is an Interview on that topic that the Washington Post published a couple of days ago.
https://www.washingtonpost….
In wide-ranging interview, Bill Nelson lays out his vision for NASA
By Christian Davenport
May 11, 2021 at 3:53 p.m. CDT
thanks…to me it was not all that impressive…he is for everything 🙂
I have no idea where Biden wants to take NASA, but in a sense its like a lot of things the administration is doing he is letting inertia take its course…the award to SpaceX will in my view be the end of NASA as we know it today. I dont know what emerges…but it will be very different
Yes, especially if SpaceX is able to fulfill on schedule. And IF Elon Musk achieves his own goal as stated below, even if it slips a bit, NASA will really need to be reinvented.
https://www.teslarati.com/s…
SpaceX could land Starship on Mars in 2024, says Elon Musk
By Eric Ralph
Posted on May 12, 2021
“Four years after Elon Musk revealed “aspirational” plans to launch Starships to Mars in 2022, the SpaceX CEO now believes that 2024 is a more accurate target.
For SpaceX, that two-year ‘delay’ is more impressive than anything given that the company practically restarted Starship development from scratch a year after Musk set the 2022 target. In late 2018, after more than two years of work developing a Starship (then BFR) built out of carbon fiber composites, the CEO revealed that the company was going to completely redesign the rocket to use steel for all major structures.”
saw that I posted a link on another thread
I honestly dont think that the Biden administration has any real “goals” in terms of time…ie 24 is no big deal with them.
what I see is that they, and Nelson seem content to sit back and let Musk take over the spotlight in terms of “exploration” and vehicle development.
this year the spotlight will move from whatever NASA is doing in hman spaceflight to SpaceX as they fly those two private vehicles…and if Musk flies the Starship and comes anywhere near success (to me its a big loaf to bite, but then well he is the iron man) the entire notion of space development will shift from NASA to him
at some point if this continues Nelson’s big task is going to be trying to figure out how NASA is relevant and what is mission is
this July thing is a big deal. if it happens which well it might I guess
Biden, himself, may well not have any such goals. There certainly seem to be any number of higher priorities on his personal bucket list of legacy wanna-haves.
But Nelson is sitting in a much smaller chair than Biden. He seems quite wedded to the 2024 date as that’s the main item of legacy it might be possible for him to secure. That’s why I think he badly wants Congress to give him enough more money to support a second HLS Option A contract. At worst, it would give him something to keep the legacy contractor peanut gallery diverted while SpaceX moves the ball down the field. At best, he gets at least an outside shot at a second path to making 2024.
the reality is that this is 21 and by the time the money for any second effort shows up its aalmost 24 (even if it works) and well thats the end. there is no history of any aerospace corporation delivering a human rated ready to operate vehicle in that short a time. I doubt SpaceX can even do it, although they are the only real chance in town
plus I dont think Biden wants that. what Biden wants in my view is something that in four or eight years he can go down to a launch pad and say “we did this” …and in the meantime provide “thrills” for the crowd
they (and I) Have figured out this is spaceX role. Musk promises something that NASA has not had in decades..a human spaceflight program 1) without the humans to risk and 2) that delivers results every few weeks/months instead of once a decade…and which is media happy.
one thing I have learned (the hard way) about BO..is if they said they were making a bathtub they couldnt deliver it on time.
see what happens with Vulcan
I’m not sure Biden is quite so blase about timing – though given his declining faculties that certainly can’t be ruled out. But Nelson seems to appreciate that he’s not going to be The Guy if he can’t make the Moon happen by noon on Jan. 20, 2025. There’s a lot of difference between four years and eight years. I think Nelson is smart enough – still – to see he can’t count on having a second four. Perhaps Biden, in his increasingly infrequent moments of lucidity, can see this too.
In any case, Nelson would very much like to get the Space Pork Caucus off his back and do so in a way that doesn’t rule out even SpaceX getting us to the Moon by 2024. Getting enough money for even a bare-bones 2nd HLS Option A contract would do that. It doesn’t matter if National Team can’t deliver until long after 2024. SpaceX will either do so or establish once and for all that it was never possible in the first place. I think it is possible and so does Elon Musk. So we shall just have to be at least a bit patient and see what befalls over the coming three-and-a-half years.
Beyond that, I agree entirely that it’s going to be SpaceX or bust on getting the U.S. out into space in a Heinlein-esque way. Also agree that, absent some sort of Road-to-Damascus moment on Bezos’s part, Blue seems increasingly likely to be either a fringe player or no player at all going forward.
I stopped reading on the mental capabilities thing. Biden is far sharper then trump has been in 20 years
But Nelson’s for wringing enough additional money out of Congress to throw the porkers a bone in the form of a second HLS contract for the
InsiderNational Team. That should keep them occupied and quiet long enough for the transition from a NASA-centric to a non-NASA-centric era of U.S. spacefaring to take hold. Nelson, I think, sees the importance of at least keeping NASA bumper stickers on the tails of everything SpaceX comes up with to make us truly spacefaring. I’m okay with that too. Far more importantly, so is Elon Musk.The Bridenstine Administration at NASA demonstrated pretty clearly that a suitably motivated and skilled Administrator can accomplish a lot of change in a fairly short period of time. But it also demonstrated that there are limits to what can be accomplished absent Congressional buy-in. A lot of Nelson’s future reputation as a NASA Administrator is going to depend upon how he handles Congress as opposed to Congress handling him. He simply hasn’t been in the job long enough to give much indication of whether he’s going to more resemble Bridenstine or Bolden. I, of course, am hoping it’s the former.
what did Jimbo do? rearrange the room? he really made no major change at NASA paraticularly in human spaceflight. he was a toady
as for Nelson. his job is to implement Biden space policy, whatever that turns out to be. other then a few vague statements its unclear there is one. and my theory is that is by design right now. SpaceX is going to have more or less this year to itself in terms of the PR and eithe gaining or not gaining Moementeur (Nelsonmentem…sorry bad I know) and we will see where at the end that is
SLS has finally met its competitor
We’ve had this “Jimbo” conversation before. What did he do?
1) Killed a single big, expensive, over-budget and behind-schedule Lunar Resource Prospector mission and ginned up CLPS in its place.
2) Took every potential mission away from SLS except sending Orion to NRHO. He did this by threatening to take every mission away from SLS, then letting Shelby push back enough to salvage just one mission for SLS.
3) Fired Gerst and Hill.
4) Quickly did the same to Loverro when he went off the reservation.
5) Was the key to the 2024 Artemis schedule decision while wisely letting Pence take the credit.
6) Was the guy behind naming the program Artemis.
7) Was the guy behind the Artemis Accords.
8) Put Kathy Lueders in as Loverro’s replacement.
9) Preserved the future geopolitical utility of Gateway while removing it from the critical path for an American return to the lunar surface.
10) Sole-sourced Gateway Logistics Services to SpaceX on a COTS-type contract with an on-ramp for other future potential providers.
11) Provided cover for his subordinates’ round-filing of Boeing’s lander proposal and including Dynetics and SpaceX in the first round of selectees. Did the same for most of the process that concluded with SpaceX’s selection as sole provider.
That’s a pretty impressive list, especially for a NASA Administrator who only served 33 months in the position.
Bolden, in contrast, was there over twice as long and didn’t do any of this even though he had the opportunity to do at least some of it.
You are correct that the next 12 months will be pivotal in terms of SpaceX removing most of the remaining risk some still see in granting it the central place in U.S. governmental – in addition to its own – plans for human lunar and Mars expeditions. I have every confidence SpaceX will accomplish that. I also think the USSF, a year hence, will be willing to rest considerably more of the weight of its future plans on SpaceX than is the case even now.
lol
nothing changed