Posted: Wed, Nov 12, 2003, 11:24 PM ET (0424 GMT)
NASA has tapped an admiral with expertise in oceanography to be the next director of the Stennis Space Center (SSC) in Mississippi, the space agency announced Wednesday. U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Thomas Q. Donaldson, V, will take over as director of SSC in early January. Donaldson had been serving as commander of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, co-located at Stennis, since late 2000. He was also named Hydrographer of the Navy in 2001. Donaldson succeeds Michael Rudolphi, who had been serving as interim director since May, when then-director William Parsons was named manager of the space shuttle program. Rudolphi will move to the Marshall Space Flight Center, where he will be manager of the Space Shuttle Propulsion Office. NASA also named David Throckmorton to the position of deputy director of SSC, effective December 1. Throckmorton had been the deputy director of the engineering directorate at Marshall.

Related Links:

•  NASA press release about Donaldson
•  NASA press release about Rudolphi
•  NASA press release about Throckmorton
•  AP article about Donaldson