Space Florida Meets With Obama Team

The incoming Obama Administration's NASA Review Team tagged up with Space Florida today and had a productive and insightful briefing on the state's role in the future of space exploration.

Space Florida President Steve Kohler met with members of the review team in Washington, D.C., and had a wide-ranging discussion that covered topics such as the state's commercial space infrastructure program -- a project aimed at converting launch pads at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station from military to commercial use.

The anticipated five-year hiatus in U.S. human space flight between the 2010 retirement of NASA's shuttle fleet and the first piloted flights of Ares 1 rockets and Orion spacecraft in 2015 also was discussed.

Other topics included the state's plans to create a Commercial Launch Zone at Cape Canaveral that will extend tax benefits to launch services companies -- a concept similar to tax advantages given to businesses operating in Foreign Trade Zones.

You can take a look at a meeting summary here: Space Florida Summary.

Five space policy experts -- four of whom held key NASA posts during the Clinton Administration -- make up the NASA Review Team, which is gathering data on options on various directions that the Obama Administration could take the U.S. space program. They aim to brief Obama and senior advisers before his Jan. 20 inauguration.

The NASA Review team posts summaries from all of its meetings at the Obama Transition Team's web site, and the Space Florida paper will be uploaded here: Your Seat At The Table. Enter the word "space" or "NASA" in the search field to pull up a selection of summaries that have been posted by the team.

Created by the Legislature in 1989, Space Florida aims to expand aerospace enterprise and attract new space industry businesses to the state. The organization also provides support services to launch and payload providers doing business in Florida.

Space Florida spokeswoman Deb Spicer said the organization contacted the incoming administration's NASA Review Team last month and set up the meeting. The Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast and representatives of the Brevard County Commission met with the review team last month.

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Click to enlarge the NASA TV screen grab of a United Launch Alliance Delta 2 rocket blasting off from Launch Complex 17 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The 12-story rocket carried NASA's Dawn spacecraft into orbit in September 2007.