General John R. Dailey, NASA's associate deputy administrator, was named the director of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum on Wednesday.
Dailey will oversee 260 employees, and an annual operating budget of $25 million, at the most-visited museum in the world.
He will also preside over the opening of the museum's facility at the Washington Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia, which will hold more than 100 spacecraft and 180 aircraft. The Dulles Center is scheduled to open in December 2003.
The Air and Space Museum holds many famous relics of aviation and aerospace history, including the Wright Brothers' Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, and the Apollo 11 command module.
Dailey succeeds Vice Admiral Donald Engen as director of the museum. Engen was killed in a glider accident last July.
"Admiral Don Engen was a very close friend," Dailey said. "I consider it a privilege of the highest order to be able to carry on his vision."
At NASA, Dailey helped guide NASA's strategic planning during a period of increasingly tighter budgets.
Dailey, who is 65, served for 36 years in the Marine Corps and flew 450 missions during the Vietnam War.
Smithsonian Secretary I. Michael Heyman announced Dailey's selection. "We look forward to an exciting future as the museum continues to grow and reach out to new audiences on the Mall and at the planned Dulles Center," Heyman said.
Dailey will begin his tenure as director of the museum in January.
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