WASHINGTON — Patrick Scheuermann will take over as director of NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., replacing Arthur E. “Gene” Goldman effective immediately, according to a March 1 agency news release. Goldman, who has served at Stennis since November 2008, will assume the deputy director slot at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., according to the release.

“As we work to better align NASA for the future, I’m asking proven members of my team to help us reach our goals through their excellent leadership skills,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden stated in the news release.

Scheuermann previously was deputy director at Stennis and before that served as associate director at the center, which handles much of NASA’s propulsion testing. Scheuermann, who holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, also served as chief operating officer of NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, and was deputy director of center operations at Stennis until his move to Michoud. Since joining NASA in 1988 as a propulsion test engineer, Scheuermann has worked numerous major test projects and also was project manager for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program.

Goldman, a civil engineer who served as deputy director of Stennis from 2006 to 2008, spent the previous two years as manager of the Space Shuttle Main Engine Project at Marshall, which is responsible for NASA propulsion systems, engineering, science, space operations and other work in support of space exploration missions. Goldman also spent five years as deputy manager of the Space Shuttle Main Engine Project.

In February, Bolden announced that Woodrow Whitlow, director of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, had been named associate administrator for mission support at NASA headquarters in Washington.

Ray Lugo, the deputy director at Glenn, was named acting director, according to the March 1 announcement. Previously Lugo served as the deputy program manager of the Launch Services Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.