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Marco Rubio: Disconnect Between American Public, Space Program  August 6th, 2014 | Marco Rubio toured the Kennedy Space Center Wednesday where he met with NASA officials to discuss the space program. The Republican Senator from South Florida says there's a disconnect between the American people and the space program. [This 170 foot tall welder will be used to build parts of the Space Launch System in Michoud, New Orleans. Photo: NASA] Rubio was asked about funding for NASA, and concerns that the agency doesn’t have enough money to build its new rocket- the Space Launch System. The SLS is designed to carry a new spacecraft- the Orion- to an asteroid or Mars. Rubio said the first step is to get people excited about what the agency is doing- and the unmanned test flight of Orion in December should help. “Because when people see that capsule exit the earth’s atmosphere and re-enter once again, they’ll be reminded again of what we did in the 70s and ‘60s during the Apollo program, and they’ll be motivated to tackle that again in a new frontier and a new challenge, before our country," said Rubio. "And that is placing boots on the ground, on Mars.” Rubio’s visit came a few days after SpaceX announced it would build a commercial launch site in Texas, not Florida as local aerospace advocates were hoping. He said he believes this state still has a robust future in the commercial space industry. |
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