Nasa picks Florida agency to take over shuttle landing strip

Visitors view the space shuttle Atlantis on the opening day of its exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida yesterday.Reuters/Cape CanaveralNasa has selected Space Florida, a state-backed economic development agency, to take over operations, maintenance and development of the space shuttle’s idled landing site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, officials said on Friday.Terms of the agreement, which have not yet been finalised, were not disclosed, but Space Florida has made no secret about its desire to take over facilities no longer needed by Nasa to develop a multi-user commercial spaceport, somewhat akin to an airport or seaport.The state already has a lease for one of the space shuttle’s processing hangars, and an agreement with Boeing to use the refurbished facility for its planned commercial space taxi.The so-called CST-100 is one of three spaceships under development in partnership with Nasa to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, a permanently staffed, $100bn research outpost that flies about 250 miles (402km) above Earth.Nasa ended its 30-year space shuttle programme in 2011, leaving Russia’s Soyuz capsules as the sole means to transport crews to the station, a service that costs the US more than $70mn per person. Nasa hopes to buy rides commercially from a US company by 2017.The shuttle’s retirement left the Kennedy Space Center loaded with equipment and facilities that are not needed in Nasa’s new human space initiative, which includes a heavy-lift rocket and deep-space capsule for journeys to asteroids, the moon and other destinations beyond the space station’s orbit.The announcement that Space Florida had been chosen was made by Nasa administrator Charles Bolden who was in Florida for the opening of the shuttle Atlantis exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.Proposals to take over one of the shuttle’s two launch pads are due on July 5.