Space lobbying in Tallahassee

Pity the poor Florida state legislator who ventured outside his or her office at the wrong time Wednesday, the Tallahassee Democrat reported, as “representatives from NASA, Lockheed-Martin and the city of Titusville, among others, focused on tracking down and buttonholing the Legislature’s newest lawmakers.” It was “Space Day” in the Florida Legislature, and about 60 “space delegates” were meeting with legislators as well as the state’s lieutenant governor, Jeff Kottkamp, trying to win support for measures to support the state’s space industry, such as workforce training, funding for the state’s new space agency, Space Florida, and a life sciences “center of excellence”. Or, as one United Space Alliance lobbyist bluntly put it, “Send me money.” Hopefully they were a little more diplomatic in their meetings with legislators, buttonholed or otherwise.