NASA veteran takes charge of more than 5000 civil service and contractor employees
by SPEAKIN’ OUT NEWS
Stephen “Steve” Cash began leading NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center on October 19, returning to the Huntsville institution where his career started and taking responsibility for a workforce central to the region’s space economy.
NASA announced the appointment October 16. Cash succeeds Rae Ann Meyer, who had served as acting center director since September 2025 and will return to her deputy director position.
Cash oversees more than 5,000 civil service and contractor employees, according to NASA. Marshall’s responsibilities span propulsion, space systems, scientific research and technology development, connecting the leadership change to a substantial technical workforce.
“It is a profound honor to be back home at the Marshall Space Flight Center,” Cash said in NASA’s announcement.
Cash joined Marshall in 1982 and spent 34 years with NASA before retiring in 2016. Business Alabama’s October 19 report described his subsequent work at Huntsville-based aerospace company Axient and his return to the center’s leadership.
His experience includes managing Marshall’s Space Shuttle Propulsion Office and directing its Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate. Those positions placed him in engineering and oversight roles supporting human spaceflight.
The appointment takes effect as Marshall continues work involving the Space Launch System, the Human Landing System, and technologies supporting exploration beyond Earth. NASA’s announcement also identifies nuclear power and propulsion among the center’s areas of responsibility.
For North Alabama, the immediate development is a change in who leads that work. The announcement does not establish a new hiring campaign, additional contracts, or a change in program funding.
Those outcomes would require separate decisions and announcements. Instead, Cash’s return brings an experienced engineering leader into a position overseeing the people and capabilities already supporting Marshall’s missions, with continuity from Meyer as deputy director during the transition.