Comments on: Florida state incentives and spaceports http://www.spacepolitics.com/2008/04/07/florida-state-incentives-and-spaceports/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=florida-state-incentives-and-spaceports Because sometimes the most important orbit is the Beltway... Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:35:41 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 By: Ray http://www.spacepolitics.com/2008/04/07/florida-state-incentives-and-spaceports/#comment-45151 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:22:36 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/2008/04/07/florida-state-incentives-and-spaceports/#comment-45151 I for one don’t have any special insight into the bill beyond what’s in the links I gave above. I suppose it’s possible they figure advances in RLVs are bound to help Florida, and they’re willing to sponsor it on that basis. However, my gut feeling is there would be some Florida-specific tie-in. The Florida Google Lunar X PRIZE $2 million prize boost, for example, is contingent on the winner launching from Florida. (I’m not sure why they wouldn’t give a similar incentive for a 2nd place launch, especially if the $2M wasn’t awarded to 1st place – a launch is a launch after all and the $2M would be an even bigger factor for a 2nd placer – but the way I read it it’s for 1st place only).

However, one thing I’ll note is, if I’m reading my legalese correctly, the bill seems to be moving ahead in recent days. See the “bill status” link in my comments above.

Note the following from the summary, though: “The bill also creates a $40 million prize ($20 million contributed by the state) to encourage the
invention of a reusable space vehicle that could be used to replace the Space Shuttle. However, this bill does not appropriate any state funds for this prize.”

The 4 other bills Jeff mentioned in the original post all seem to be moving ahead another step or 2 in recent days, again assuming I’m correctly interpreting what I see when I look up those bills on the “bill status” website – which is a fairly big assumption since I have no legal or political background.

Also, you can see the status of SB 2438 “Relating to Spaceflight/Informed Consent” on that same “bill status” page. RLV News has a post on it here with a Florida Today link (and a hat tip to Jeff’s SpaceToday.net):

http://www.hobbyspace.com/nucleus/index.php?itemid=6138.

It would be cool for someone (Action for Space?) to have some kind of “one stop shopping” to find out the status of these various state-level space bills.

]]> By: Michael Mealling http://www.spacepolitics.com/2008/04/07/florida-state-incentives-and-spaceports/#comment-43975 Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:55:49 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/2008/04/07/florida-state-incentives-and-spaceports/#comment-43975 I can’t quite figure SB 2310 out. It suggests that the rules are modeled after the XPRIZE but I can’t see how those rules would help Florida specifically. There has to be something in there about companies that setup shop in Florida. Also, as many have suggested in hallway conversations, this bill may be setup for a particular company in mind. But that would mean the XPRIZE like rules would make that problematic.

Does anyone have any insight into the who and why of this bill?

]]> By: Ray http://www.spacepolitics.com/2008/04/07/florida-state-incentives-and-spaceports/#comment-43912 Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:21:34 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/2008/04/07/florida-state-incentives-and-spaceports/#comment-43912 There’s also an RLV prize (The Florida Prize for Space Exploration) bill SB 2310. It also has some non-space content.

Florida Impact Statement: http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=2008s2310.go.doc&DocumentType=Analysis&BillNumber=2310&Session=2008

Broward Politics commentary: weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2008/02/broward_senator_pushes_long-term_economic_development.html

bill status: http://www.flsenate.gov/session/index.cfm?Mode=Bills&SubMenu=1&BI_Mode=ViewBillInfo&BillNum=2310&Year=2008&Chamber=Senate#Vote

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