Mark your calendar.
FLORIDA TODAY, along with partners Brevard Community College and the Council of Technical Societies, will host a special forum Tuesday at BCC's Bernard Simpkins Fine Arts Center, to discuss the White House's plans for NASA and the U.S. space program.
The event is open to the public and will begin at 7pm. It also will be shown live on www.floridatoday.com.
The expert panel includes a:
-Space advisor. Marsh Heard, space advisor of the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast
-Union representative. Dan Raymond, business manager and financial secretary with the International Brotherhood of Electrical workers Local 2088, which represents more than 800 workers directly involved in Kennedy Space Center or the Air Force Eastern Range
-Former astronaut. Winston Scott is now dean of Florida Tech's School of Aeronautics, FIT
-Former congressman. Dr. Dave Weldon, a former Congressman and member, House Appropriations Committee. He is a practicing physician with MIMA.
Moderated by Matt Reed, FLORIDA TODAY senior editor and Watchdog columnist, the panel will answer written questions submitted by audience members. The discussion will include topics such as:
-The impact the program will have on the Space Coast and Florida.
-How policies embraced by this budget will impact our future as a spacefaring nation and our reputation as a leader in space
The forum will also be taped and aired several times on WBCC-TV.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
2 comments:
Really.. you guys need to have a forum on this.. have'nt these questions been beat to death, talked about for months.. and you still want to discuss this?? is this a rehab group meeting, or a cry in your cup session??? what can any one of you do about it?? The voices of many members of congress the senate subcommittee, and others in Power can't build humpty dumpty again..
You guys should have been building and drawing other non-space related industry to our area years ago.. had you, then non of this would have the impact on this area it is having.. Your meeting is waste of time, just pouring more salt in the open gushing wound.. the patient is dying.. and were leaving to find a doctor that will heal us.. it's not here anymore..
Despite the melodramatic hand-wringing above, it is not too late to save a viable U.S. manned space program using this simple, reasonable and face-saving political compromise:
1) Retire the shuttle as scheduled; (2) Cancel or restructure Constellation so that man's permanent return to the Moon for science is truly international -- with our existing ISS partners and two or three new countries building (and paying for)almost everything except the U.S. rockets which will fly most of the Moon missions out of KSC; 3) With the billions saved NASA can immediately accelerate to completion the Ares I / Orion post-shuttle space access system (the American Soyuz, if you will) and begin work on Ares V.
Thousands keep their space jobs; the economy of central FL is saved; the lights stay on at KSC and matchless Complex 39 remains in use. The U.S at last achieves the relatively safe, simple and affordable access to space originally promised by the shuttle. We remain the world leader in manned spaceflight with all the national security benefits and international prestige that brings. And the U.S. puts itself in position to play a key role in mankind's return to the Moon and exploration of the inner solar system.
All of this without spending one additional dime of taxpayers' money! What's not to like...???
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