New Director Seeks to ‘Grow and Expand’ Space Center near Biloxi, Miss.

Jun. 12–STENNIS SPACE CENTER, Miss.–The space center’s interim director is looking for ways to attract more business, just as his predecessor did.

Michael Rudolphi moved up from deputy director at Stennis to the head job after Bill Parsons’ promotion last month to lead NASA’s space shuttle program.

Parsons was Stennis director for less than a year, and Rudolphi came aboard in November.

“Bill and I share a vision of excellence and trying new things,” Rudolphi said at a meeting Wednesday with the news media.

He’s working with a steering committee Parsons organized earlier this year made up of officials from the Navy and other main players at Stennis to leverage their capabilities to attract more commercial and government activity.

“We can do more,” Rudolphi said. “We need to figure out ways to market Stennis… to help us grow and expand.”

Rudolphi predicted growth for Stennis over the long run but foresees no major construction or hiring in the near future.

He said the space agency is in transition following the Columbia disaster in February. “Change is probably going to be the norm,” he said. “On the heels of Columbia you’ll see more adjustments, and that’s good for all of us.”

Rudolphi was NASA’s senior representative in Lufkin, Texas, during the recovery of debris from the Columbia accident.

An Illinois native, Rudolphi was a Hall of Fame basketball player at the University of Tennessee-Martin. Early in his career he worked as an engineer for the Tennessee Valley Authority. He joined NASA in 1988 as a manager for the advanced solid rocket motor in Iuka, Miss.

He also worked on the solid rocket booster project at the Kennedy Space Center.

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(c) 2003, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.