There is good news for the Space Coast -- for Brevard County, the Kennedy Space Center and all of Florida now that America is developing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS).
These are two programs helping to foster a new era of technological development and discovery in space with capabilities to support human missions to the moon, asteroids and beyond.
Even before the retirement of the shuttle program, state and local forethought enabled the rapid renovation of key KSC facilities such as the Operations & Checkout (O&C) building to develop this structure into a modern, state-of-the-art spacecraft manufacturing operation.
Space Florida, the state of Floridas spaceport authority and aerospace development agency, worked with the Economic Development Commission of Floridas Space Coast to secure the infrastructure modification funding enabling the assembly of the Orion spacecraft by NASA and Lockheed Martin at the O&C building.
During the past 12 months, 66,000 custom-designed pieces of the Orion -- a critical component of Americas successful future in human space exploration -- have come together in that building, and hundreds of jobs are anticipated as a result of the Orion program alone. Floridas investment in space exploration and our regions workforce is paying off. We are less than one year away from Orions first orbital mission, when the spacecraft will travel farther into space than any capsule since the days of Apollo.
During this test, an uncrewed Orion will launch from Cape Canaverals Space Launch Complex 37 atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket and travel more than 3,600 miles into space before landing. The flight will test and validate many systems aboard the spacecraft, such as its heat shield and thermal protection capabilities, to help reduce risks and costs for future human missions.
Similar progress has been made with the Space Launch System -- a rocket more powerful than the Saturn V -- in preparation for history-making human spaceflight missions and a support role for a variety of space science initiatives and national security payloads. Boeing is developing the core stages of this heavy-lift launch vehicle, and its Florida-based workforce is supporting SLS manufacturing and system validation testing at NASAs Michoud Assembly Facility and Stennis Space Center.
Florida-based Aerojet/Rocketdyne and ATK teams are also heavily involved in the SLS initiative. A first test fire of the SLS is anticipated in 2016. Meanwhile, KSC is modernizing its ground operations infrastructure to support SLS processing and launch activities.
The 2014 Orion test mission is a precursor to an Orion-SLS test flight in 2017 and the first crewed operational missions slated to begin in 2021. These important and challenging events represent humanitys renewed quest to push the boundaries of knowledge and exploration -- and they are reminding the world why we are rightfully called the Space Coast.
We are fortunate that support for our nations space leadership through NASAs next-generation space exploration program begins here, as it should. The future is bright, and the exciting continuation of the groundbreaking work our scientists and engineers have been producing for generations will rumble to life in less than a year. The countdown to America reasserting its leadership role internationally in space exploration has begun.
Frank DiBello is the president and CEO of Space Florida. Lynda Weatherman, preident and CEO of the Space Coast Economic Development Commission, is the co-author of this commentary.
