The State of Florida has been central to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and U.S. space programs in general since the Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center region became NASA’s launch hub in the 1950s. The location was chosen because its eastern coastline allows rockets to launch safely over the Atlantic and take advantage of the Earth’s rotation for a velocity boost.
Florida hosted every major U.S. crewed mission, from Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo through the Space Shuttle era, making it the symbolic and you could say operational heart of American spaceflight.
Cape Canaveral remains NASA’s primary launch site for crewed and uncrewed missions, including the current Artemis lunar missions and other Commercial Crew launches.
WMFE in Orlando — now called Central Florida Public Media — slowed its coverage of space after the Shuttle Program ended in 2011, but at the end of 2014 they covered the first, uncrewed flight of NASA’s Orion spacecraft — which is part of the Artemis lunar mission — and WMFE’s Brendan Byrne covered it. That story pretty much launched his career covering space, including hosting a podcast called Are We There Yet? which we now air on Saturday evenings at 7:30 on WGCU-FM. So, we thought it would be a good time to get to know him and the show.
Guest:
Brendan Byrne, Assistant News Director at Central Florida Public Media and host of the podcast and radio show 'Are We There Yet?'
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