More voices in Florida lobby to move NASA HQ there
Today there were several news stories quoting a variety of Florida politicians and industry groups pushing to have the Trump administration move NASA’s headquarters from Washington to Florida when its current building lease expires in 2028.
- Fox: NASA should dump DC for the Sunshine State, DeSantis and other Florida Republicans suggest
- WFLA-TV Tampa: Could NASA headquarters move to Florida? Space Florida says it ‘makes sense’
- WESH-TV Orlando: Space Florida says it ‘makes sense’ to have NASA HQ at Kennedy Space Center
The first story mostly reiterated what was said by these politicians in January. All three seemed carefully timed to maximize exposure, which illustrates why one must always be skeptical of modern mainstream journalism. Too often it doesn’t report news, it serves as a propagandist for the interests of the political world.
Even so, moving a significantly reduced NASA headquarters to Florida makes some sense. If anything, it would save taxpayer money, and might also reduce the ability of NASA’s upper management to manipulate Congress to give it more money while accomplishing nothing, something that management has been doing now for decades.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Today there were several news stories quoting a variety of Florida politicians and industry groups pushing to have the Trump administration move NASA’s headquarters from Washington to Florida when its current building lease expires in 2028.
- Fox: NASA should dump DC for the Sunshine State, DeSantis and other Florida Republicans suggest
- WFLA-TV Tampa: Could NASA headquarters move to Florida? Space Florida says it ‘makes sense’
- WESH-TV Orlando: Space Florida says it ‘makes sense’ to have NASA HQ at Kennedy Space Center
The first story mostly reiterated what was said by these politicians in January. All three seemed carefully timed to maximize exposure, which illustrates why one must always be skeptical of modern mainstream journalism. Too often it doesn’t report news, it serves as a propagandist for the interests of the political world.
Even so, moving a significantly reduced NASA headquarters to Florida makes some sense. If anything, it would save taxpayer money, and might also reduce the ability of NASA’s upper management to manipulate Congress to give it more money while accomplishing nothing, something that management has been doing now for decades.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
All this move would do is make NASA look like Florida pork–helping the Grover Norquists strangle it in the bathtub like his ilk wanted to do all along.
Why not on the JSC campus in Houston?
What Grover Norquist has always wanted is lower taxes. He’s going to get his wish. I’m not aware of any Norquistian animus toward NASA in particular. But even should that exist, he doesn’t run the government.
Anent who does run the government, The New Sheriff In Town and his trusty deputy Elon have declared war on Waste, Fraud and Abuse. Battle has already been joined, initial blood has been spilled and the fate of the WFA “army” looks grim. As NASA has contributed at least a couple of divisions to the WFA army in recent years, it will not – and should not – escape the mow-down that is underway.
As the US private sector does more and more of the work formerly in NASA’s exclusive demesne, changes were inevitable even absent DOGE. NASA has proven that neither project management nor the management of routine operations are among its core competencies. When the dysfunction is ironed out of NASA, a lot of its current headcount – particularly in upper management – will go with it. Rather than rattle around in an oversized HQ building in DC, it would make excellent sense to move the worthwhile remains of NASA HQ staff to more modest quarters at KSC.
The politics of pork is one of the things that has built the WFA army to its pre-DOGE size – with Republicans being nearly as historically eager to play the pork game as Democrats. This mindset is one of the things DOGE is providing ammunition toward combatting.
There will be more than a bit of grumbling among the old-guard Republican Congresscritters at this transition, but I do not think they will succeed in materially impeding it. I suspect, in fact, that we will see a decidedly elevated rate of retirements among the higher-mileage Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle as the message sinks in and the threat of well-funded hard-core MAGA primary challengers materializes.
”…move NASA’s headquarters from Washington to Florida when its current building lease expires in 2028.”
The danger in this is that NASA could lose broad Congressional support if it is seen as a Floridian agency instead of a national one.
mkent wrote, “The danger in this is that NASA could lose broad Congressional support if it is seen as a Floridian agency instead of a national one.”
And this is a problem? See Dick Eagleson’s comment above. NASA should shrink, a lot, since the private sector will be doing the work instead.
Boeing moved its headquarters from Washington state, where a large part of their core business manufacturing happens, to Chicago, more centrally located, but farther away from all its production facilities. (Can both be true?) Boeing now has massive production problems, to the point that NASA no-bids Boeing. With their lesson learned, Boeing is moving its headquarters to Washington DC, where government contracts are handed out like candy.
Boeing seems to have learned the wrong lesson about how to operate a business, and maybe we don’t want NASA’s headquarters anywhere near Boeing’s headquarters.
With NASA based in or near KSC, it is close to where important NASA operations take place. This is the opposite of what Boeing has done, and maybe NASA management will learn, over time, how to manage real projects. Close proximity to the operations of some of the NewSpace company manufacturing plants could give NASA management more clues as to how to manage well. Lord knows that proximity to Congress has left NASA management unable to lead major projects on time or on budget. Let’s just hope that the same fate does not befall Boeing.
Of course, in Florida, the first “A” in NaSA remains a little “a.” There are a couple of facilities where NASA Headquarters could help bring back the aeronautics aspect of their mission.
mkent,
The danger in this is that NASA could lose broad Congressional support if it is seen as a Floridian agency instead of a national one.
That is potentially a problem only if NASA is alone in having its HQ moved out of DC. But if – after DOGE’s initial winnowing – the HQs of most federal agencies are also moved out of DC and spread around the country, that problem never arises.
It probably makes sense to leave Congress and the Supreme Court in DC along with the Pentagon and the State Department but it’s hardly obvious that any other consequential government agency particularly needs to be HQed in DC. That includes the FBI and the other parts of the so-called “Intelligence Community.” It would be good for the country if as many obstacles as possible were put in the way of amoral careerists and grifters and political idealogues in government “service” who have long used physical proximity to scheme their schemes and plot their plots.
Aside from the very short list of entities already named, DC should have its thick encrustation of agency HQs razed to the ground and replaced with additional monuments and museums as a way of converting it into, in essence, a national theme park.
“You’ve just won the Superbowl! What are you going to do next?”
“I’m going to DC-Land!”