Parsons dubs Cabana a fantastic pick

A Hall of Fame astronaut with an honest, open-door management style will become the 10th director of Kennedy Space Center next month while his predecessor pursues a private-sector opportunity with a company that does classified work for the Department of Defense.

Four-time shuttle flier Robert Cabana, 59, will take the helm at the nation's primary spaceport in mid-October, replacing Bill Parsons, 51, who will join Lockheed Martin Mission Services.

Parsons, who started his career in the contractor world and joined NASA in 1990, told Florida Today that he had reached the point in his career where he needed to decide whether he was going to stay with NASA until retirement or pursue opportunities in the private sector.

The opportunity with Lockheed Martin came up and he decided to go for it.

"It just felt like the right thing to do, so I decided to go ahead and accept their offer and let other people have a chance at running the Kennedy Space Center," Parsons said.

His new title: Vice President and Program Manager, Strategic Space Initiatives.

"It was a very personal decision. It was a very difficult decision, but there are fantastic people here to fill in when I'm not here anymore," Parsons said. "As I move on, good people will step in."

Parsons said he and his family will remain in Brevard County for at least the foreseeable future. Wife Amy will continue teaching at Tropical Elementary and his daughter and son will remain enrolled at Edgewood Junior and Senior High School.

Cabana, who now is director of NASA's Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss., said he is looking forward to taking on the challenges NASA faces at KSC while transitioning from the shuttle program to voyages beyond Earth orbit.

"I couldn't be more excited about working with a great team, and I can't wait to get down there," said Cabana, who is married and has three adult children and five grandchildren.

His management style: "Taking care of the people that work for you."

"If you put the people first and provide them with the tools and the resources they need to be effective and efficient, then you are going to get the job done," he said.

"Open, honest communication" also is key to the way Cabana does business.

"It's critical that everybody feels free to have a say in a decision," the veteran shuttle pilot and mission commander said.

"So you take care of the troops, have open and honest communication and provide them with the resources they need -- and then have a vision of where you are going that is clearly communicated, that everybody buys into and accepts."

Parsons, who has known and worked with Cabana for about two decades, thinks the former NASA Chief Astronaut -- who was inducted this year into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of fame -- is a great pick for the post.

"Bob Cabana is one of the finest. He will do a fantastic job," Parsons said. "I'm very, very happy that Bob has decided to take this on."