Space and economic development officials in Florida are weighing in against a proposal by NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to consider launches of human spaceflight missions, calling it a “betrayal” of their state’s workers, Florida Today reported.
Wallops is studying the impact of infrastructure upgrades needed for manned missions as part of a comprehensive environmental review of potential new operations. Those flights might be limited to suborbital space tourism but could evolve to orbital missions.
“The most pressing issue for the Florida workforce is the sense of betrayal that their tax dollars might be used in establishing a competing orbital human spaceflight launch capability in another state when they have so well and ably done the job here in Florida,” said Lynda Weatherman, president and CEO of the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast.
