The Florida Senate approves "spaceport" territories in Bay and Miami-Dade Counties

The final space shuttle voyage lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Feb. 2011. - By Sean Birdsell / WMNF News.

The Senate on Thursday unanimously passed a proposal that would designate property at Tyndall Air Force Base in Bay County and within the former boundaries of Homestead Air Force Base in Miami-Dade County as “spaceport territory.”

Sponsor Alexis Calatayud, R-Miami, said the bill (SB 968) would help the state attract more aerospace supply-chain companies, boost the aerospace industry and insulate areas from federal decisions that could affect bases.

“I believe this is a very important step forward in making sure that greater territory across Florida is utilized for space commerce,” Calatayud said.

A key part of the work of Space Florida, the state’s aerospace agency, has been facilitating financing, mostly for private research-and-development and manufacturing projects.

But its ability to develop space infrastructure is limited to areas designated as “spaceport territories.”

Such territories are designated in Brevard, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Gulf, Walton and Duval counties.

A similar measure (HB 577) has gone through House committees and is positioned to go to the full House.