Aerospace Research Park to Rise Near Kennedy

It’s been touted as what will become the premier place for aerospace research, and its location has been the premiere place for space missions since they all began.

Exploration Park is a facility officials said they hope will bring high-tech companies to the Space Coast, and save high-tech jobs soon to be lost when the shuttle program retires.

The park will be built right near the Kennedy Space Center, where for 50 years the United States has sent astronauts into orbit and achieved missions of exploration.

The team is looking to woo industry and jobs to the park, all as thousands of shuttle workers are set to lose their jobs when the program ends either late this year or sometime next.

The focus is aerospace and other commercial companies -- many of which may develop and perform clean energy research -- and others that will build and assemble spacecraft that may launch at the nearby pads to be converted as part of the 21st Century Launch Complex.

It’s an investment expected to bring in $98 million and create more than 1,700 jobs.

Of that $98 million, $7 million is state money, which is going toward infrastructure and facilities.

Kathy Sullivan was the first woman to walk in space, and is now a Science and Technology advisor for The Pizzuti Companies, the real estate development company working on the park.

A veteran of three space shuttle missions and a member of the Astronaut Hall of Fame, Sullivan has a strong background in research, and in 1985, she was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the National Commission on Space.

The commission’s report was called “Pioneering the Space Frontier.” It presented goals for U.S. civilian space activities over the next 25 years.

“Exploration Park provides the platform to develop the facilities necessary to advance your firm’s aerospace and technology efforts,” Sullivan said.

The groundbreaking takes place Friday, June 25, near the existing 100,000-square-foot Space Life Sciences Laboratory at KSC.

The first phase of the park is expected to be completed in 2012.

By Greg Pallone, News 13 Brevard County reporter