The group is urging President Donald Trump to send the U.S. Space Academy to Florida.
State legislators are becoming a loud lobbying force to advocate for Florida’s space industry.
The Florida Legislative Aerospace Group (FLAG) is urging President Donald Trump to choose Florida as the home for the United States Space Academy and pushing for other changes to grow Florida’s aerospace footprint.
The lawmakers in FLAG, all Republicans, are future House Speaker Mike Redondo and Reps. Jon Albert, Yvette Benarroch, Omar Blanco, Bill Conerly, Anne Gerwig, Sam Greco, Kim Kendall, Jennifer Kincart Jonsson, Monique Miller, Danny Nix, Vanessa Oliver, Michael Owen, Bill Partington, Judson Sapp and Meg Weinberger.
Last month, FLAG sent a letter to Trump and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman urging the federal government to pick Florida as the home for the Space Academy.
“We understand that Florida and Texas have emerged as two of the leading contenders for this historic installation,” FLAG’s letter said. “Having reviewed the operational realities of both states, we believe the choice is not a close one, and that Florida is the only state that meets the standard of reliability, safety, and national sovereignty that an institution of this stature demands.”
The letter lays out FLAG’s case.
“Florida’s Space Coast is the nation’s most experienced, most capable, and most secure spaceflight corridor,” FLAG insisted.
Texas’ geography makes it a bad choice, FLAG argued, because Texas rocket launches require coordination with Mexico and Cuba.
“This is a direct consequence of Texas’s geography: its launch corridors run over sovereign foreign territory and territorial waters, requiring the United States to negotiate access, safety zones, and notice-to-airmen procedures with other nations before every major launch,” FLAG said in the letter.
“The United States Space Academy will be a cornerstone of American space defense and national security education for generations. It should not be built in a location where core training and launch operations are contingent on the cooperation of foreign governments. Florida’s launch corridors, by contrast, extend over the Atlantic Ocean and are coordinated solely within the U.S. air traffic and airspace system.”
FLAG also said Texas launches left behind large debris fields that disrupted flights over the Gulf of America and the Caribbean.
“An institution meant to train the next generation of American space and military leaders should not be tied to a launch corridor with a demonstrated pattern of international air traffic disruption,” FLAG wrote.
“Florida’s launch trajectories, developed and refined over more than six decades at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center, are engineered specifically to minimize impact on populated areas and commercial air corridors.”
FLAG’s work has been ongoing for the past two years.
Most recently, FLAG spent two weeks going on aerospace tours to the four major spaceports and held briefings with 35 different aerospace and support companies.
FLAG’s agenda includes pushing for better airspace coordination between military, commercial industry and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). To advance its causes, the group worked with Florida’s congressional delegation.
“These proposals are essential in preserving Florida’s leadership role in ensuring the United States’ superiority in the global space race, and necessary to help our nation beat China in the second space race to the Moon and beyond,” Florida’s congressional delegation wrote in an October 2025 letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford.
FLAG wants to create a new Aerospace Coordination Team so all stakeholders can communicate better together and be more efficient at Cape Canaveral as Kennedy Space Center’s launches keep increasing.
“With the demand for launches expected to significantly increase in the coming years, challenges associated with the inefficiency of communication amongst those who operate within and around the vicinity of Cape Canaveral have exposed our commercial, defense, and tourism partners to unnecessary risk and delay,” Florida’s congressional delegation wrote in the letter.
“Such a lack of coordination and communication has already led to significant setbacks for our commercial partners.”
For instance, FLAG pointed out the challenge of cruise ships and space recovery competing against each other for port space.
“SpaceX had to manufacture in South Carolina due to cruise lines needing access,” FLAG wrote in a memo.
The group is also asking to certify FAA’s Space Data Integrator (SDI) capability as operational. FLAG said currently it’s considered a prototype “despite being proven over hundreds of launches.”
The congressional delegation agreed.
“As the rate of space launches surge the SDI would provide immense benefit to the entire airspace industry, given its capability to accurately track launch trajectory, reentry operations, and other data points critical to effectuating an open and safe airspace,” Florida’s congressional delegation wrote. “Expedited certification and approval of the SDI is essential to meeting these needs.”
Source & Full Article: Florida Politics
Author: Gabrielle Russon