Florida Leaders Applaud Manned Space Flight Resuming by 2017

This week, NASA announced new private-public partnerships to revive the American space programs with new manned space flight efforts by 2017.

On Tuesday, at a media event at the Kennedy Space Center, NASA unveiled an agreement with Boeing and SpaceX to transport American astronauts to the International Space Station. Boeings CST-100 and SpaceXs Crew Dragon spacecrafts will carry out the missions. Currently, with the end of the space shuttle program, the American space effort relies on Russias program to send astronauts into space.

The announcement won the applause of Floridas political leadership.

Todays announcement from NASA marks an important milestone for our nations space program and is an exciting development for Florida and the commercial space industry, said U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., after the partnerships were announced. These partnerships will ensure that American astronauts are once again launched into space from American soil. As the nations spaceport, Floridas Space Coast will play a crucial role in advancing this initiative and exploring low-Earth orbit. I, along with all Floridians, look forward to seeing our astronauts launch from Kennedy Space Center once again.

Frank DiBello, the CEO of Space Florida which leads efforts to ensure the Sunshine State remains at the vanguard of space exploration, also said the new partnerships were good news for the state.

Todays announcement is continued good news for Florida and for the nation, DiBello said. It advances a new era in space transportation and is the next major step toward restoring U.S. capability to fly astronauts to the ISS and beyond. Both Boeing and SpaceX have already invested significant time and resources into establishing commercial crew operations here in Florida and we look forward to working hand-in-hand with both companies to make their upcoming missions successful.