Gabrielle Russon
The House and Senate are closer to an agreement on Space Florida funding.
The two sides reached a deal in the budget conference to allocate $3 million for the aerospace industry financing program, following the House’s initial proposal of $6 million.
The line-item isn’t closed out in the Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriations budget, which means it could potentially change, although it doesn’t seem likely.
The House is also offering $17 million for Space Defense that is omitted in the Senate budget.
Space Florida is the state’s aerospace finance and development authority.
“As a public corporation and a statewide special-purpose entity, Space Florida was created to strengthen Florida’s position as a global leader in aerospace commerce,” according to the organization’s website.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has been a big backer of the space industry.
“There is an interest in moving the headquarters of NASA right here to Kennedy Space Center, and I’m supportive of that,” DeSantis said earlier this year. “They have this massive building in Washington, D.C., and like nobody goes to it. So why not just shutter it and move everybody down here? I think they’re planning on spending like a half a billion to build a new building up in D.C. that no one will ever go to either. So hopefully with the new administration coming in, they’ll see a great opportunity to just headquarter NASA here on the Space Coast of Florida. I think that’d be very, very fitting.”
Meanwhile, the rise of commercial space flights has turned Kennedy Space Center into a hot tourist destination as crowds flock to see more than 100 launches expected to take off this year.
“The high-level companies that are here that already have great public exposure has really helped space tourism,” Therrin Protze, the KSC Visitor Complex’s Chief Operating Officer, told Florida Politics in an interview last year. “We’re the real deal. We are a true active Space Port.”
