Air Force General to Take Command at Space Center
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Lt. Gen. Forrest S. McCartney, commander of the Air Force Space Division, was named director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center today in a move that promises to give the military a more visible role in the shuttle program.
McCartney, 55, replaced Richard Smith, director of the Florida shuttle port for the last seven years. Smith announced his retirement July 10 to become president and chief executive officer of General Space Corp.
Smith’s retirement followed the resignation of William Lucas as director of the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., where the shuttle’s solid-fuel rocket boosters are managed, but Smith denied that he was pressured to leave NASA as a result of the Jan. 28 Challenger disaster.
Among the possible candidates as replacements for Smith were McCartney and astronaut Robert Crippen, veteran of four shuttle missions.
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