Marco Rubio Urges Florida to Remain Competitive on Space

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., met with Bob Cabana, the director of Kennedy Space Center, on Wednesday and stressed that Florida needs to remain active on space exploration, including allowing more opportunities from the private sector.

Since our space program began, Florida has been Americas spaceport, and we must continue playing a central role in 21st century space exploration, Rubio said after the meeting. Of course, space exploration in this century must look significantly different than it did in the last one, with innovators in the commercial space industry carrying more of the load. I appreciated Director Cabanas time today to discuss the centers future. Its important that NASA and the commercial space industry coexist in a way that benefits our nations space and science goals, as well as Floridas longstanding role as a hub of space-related job creation.

The main concern I raised with Director Cabana is how we can get commercial space companies to launch from Florida so they can utilize the infrastructure and workforce that make Florida a unique, and ideal, place to conduct launches, Rubio added. My hope is that NASAs management plans for Kennedy do not put Florida at a competitive disadvantage, or deter or hamper commercial space entities from making full use of the facility and other potential launch sites in Florida. He assured me that would not be the case, but this is something Ill continue exploring in consultations with the different stakeholders.

The competition for commercial space industry activity is furious among states like Florida, Texas and Georgia, Rubio continued. Florida has many decades of proven experience as a space launch hub, but we must keep working aggressively to keep it that way.