WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 -- Steve Cash left Marshall Space Flight Center in 2016 as head of its safety directorate. On Monday he returns as the person running it, ending 13 months in which the Alabama center has had only an acting director.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman named Cash director on Friday, effective Oct. 19. The Huntsville center helps develop the Space Launch System, the rocket for Artemis III now being stacked in Florida, and manages the Human Landing System Program. Cash replaces Rae Ann Meyer, acting director since September 2025, who goes back to being deputy director.

Cash is a returnee, not an outsider. He began at Marshall in 1982, managed its Space Shuttle Propulsion Office through the final shuttle missions, and dire...