Florida Tech President John Nicklow joined U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody and other key leaders at a news conference this week about locating the proposed U.S. Space Academy in Florida and affirmed in his remarks the university’s commitment to ensuring excellent educational opportunities for the next generation of U.S. space workers.
“Florida Tech not only supports a Space Academy,” he said. “Florida Tech wants to help build it.”
Moody convened the news conference Tuesday at Space Florida’s Merritt Island office that also featured remarks from Space Florida CEO Rob Long and Lynda Weatherman, president and CEO of the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast. Moody plans to file legislation once the Senate is back in session to solidify Florida as the Space Academy’s new home.
We are America’s space state. Florida helped launch our nation into the Space Age, and now we are ready to lead the way into the next era of American space leadership,” she said. “Today, I stood with space industry leaders on our Space Coast to make the pitch to place the newly announced U.S. Space Academy where it belongs—in Florida.”
Moody cited the recently established Florida University Space Research Consortium, which includes Florida Tech and seven other Sunshine State universities, as a sign of the state’s unified prowess across the many facets of the space industry.
Florida Tech has the space heritage, expertise and approach to lead the way, Nicklow said.
“Physics does not grade on a curve. A rocket depends on nothing except whether the people who built it were the best in the room,” he said. “That is the only standard Florida Tech has ever used. It is the only standard I would expect this new academy to use.”
