Home > News & Media > Nelson: Citrus, Space To Thrive

Nelson: Citrus, Space To Thrive

The Ledger – December 11, 2011

Two crucial Florida industries, space and citrus, may have taken recent beatings from Washington politics, but they are on the route to thriving, according to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

Citrus has funding for greening research, and after the 2012 elections will get a larger, more permanently funded research fund, he said.

And the space industry is surviving and not in the deep depression that many feared at the ending of the Space Shuttle program and President Obama’s change of direction for exploration, Nelson said.

“We now have a vigorous space program,” he said. “The shuttle was never meant to continue. After the destruction of the Columbia, the commission formed to investigate said ‘You fly the shuttle only as long as it takes to complete the space station,’ ” he said.

Two different lines of replacement rockets are being developed. One is what Nelson calls a “space taxi” for commercial flights to the space station and the other is a rocket to go to Mars. And the unmanned program is vigorous, he said, pointing to a rocket launch to Jupiter in August, a moon probe in September, an earth satellite in October and the launch of “a Volkswagen-sized” rover to Mars in November.

The citrus industry had received funding for greening research, but not as much as it should because of politics in Congress, Nelson said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has set $11 million over the next three years for greening research. Already, $2 million of that has been given to the research center in Fort Pierce.

“It is a great help since the governor (Rick Scott) vetoed $2 million in state funds this year,” Nelson said.

Click here to view this full article online-