U.S. Navy Capt. Chris Cassidy, a Maine native who has spent 182 days in space, has been appointed chief of the Astronaut Office, NASA officials announced Thursday.

Cassidy will be responsible for managing Astronaut Office resources, operations and safety programs. He also will help develop concepts for flight crew operations and crew assignments for future missions.

The York High School graduate called the appointment an honor during a telephone interview Thursday. He is NASA’s 15th chief astronaut since the position was created in 1962.

“Looking at the wall of photos of past chief astronauts, it’s pretty cool company I’m in,” he said. “It’s an exciting week in my life.”

The first two chief astronauts were Deke Slayton and Alan Shepard, the first American to travel in space.

Cassidy said he is especially excited to take over as chief astronaut as the program prepares to launch crew members in commercial rockets within the next couple years. He’ll be in charge of assigning the international space station crew members who will launch from American soil. Currently, American astronauts launch with Russian crews.

Cassidy leaves next week for Russia for the launch of an American astronaut into space.

He will lead an office that includes 47 active astronauts. When he joined NASA 11 years ago and the U.S. Space Shuttle program was still operating, there were 125 astronauts.

“It’s less people, but we’re busy,” he said.

In addition to his experience as an astronaut, NASA’s announcement Thursday highlighted Cassidy’s experience as a U.S. Navy SEAL. The elite special operations force credited with the death of Osama bin Laden has its roots in the Underwater Demolition Teams, also known as frogmen, used by the Navy during World War II.

“The Navy has a long history working with NASA and supporting astronauts – during the earliest U.S. space flights, frogmen helped return astronauts from a splashdown at sea,” Brian Kelly, NASA’s director of flight operations, said in a statement. “Now, we are proud to have a frogman leading the Astronaut Office. Chris has served this nation admirably in the most challenging of circumstances and he will be a great leader for the astronaut corps.”

Cassidy, 45, returns to Maine frequently to visit family and speak with local students.

He flew on board the Space Shuttle Endeavor on STS-127 in July 2009 and again as a long-duration Expedition 35/36 crew member from March 28, 2013, to Sept. 11, 2013. While on the space station mission, he launched and returned aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

During his NASA career, Cassidy has spent 182 days in space and conducted six spacewalks.

His spacewalk on July 16, 2013, grabbed international headlines after his colleague’s helmet began to fill with water. The spacewalk was quickly aborted and Cassidy was able to help Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano back into the International Space Station.

Cassidy graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1993 and served four deployments as a SEAL in Afghanistan and the Mediterranean. He also earned a master’s degree in ocean engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000.

He lives in Houston with his wife and their three children.

The new appointment doesn’t mean the end of Cassidy’s space travels. He said Thursday he hopes to return to space after spending a few years working as chief astronaut.

Cassidy is known for his humor and down-to-earth personality, and often jokes about life in space during his visits with Maine school children. On Thursday, he joked that the job comes with “a cool parking space and nice office.”

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