News Room

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 16, 2007

Columbus, OH -- Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher today congratulated NASA Glenn Research Center for landing the assembly and testing of a new spacecraft that will be used in future missions to the Moon and Mars. Spacecraft parts will be manufactured in Colorado and Florida and will be assembled and tested at NASA's Plum Brook facility, located near Sandusky. The State of Ohio, through the Ohio Department of Development has committed a $5 million Job Ready Sites grant to NASA Glenn to invest in testing equipment.

“We are thrilled that NASA has selected the Plum Brook facility as the location to test its state-of-the-art Orion spacecraft," said Lt. Governor Fisher, who also serves as Director of the Ohio Department of Development. “Governor Strickland and I, along with local partners including the Greater Cleveland Partnership and Team NEO, have all been advocates for Ohio in this effort and are proud that this collaboration has paid off. The State of Ohio is pleased to provide financial support in this endeavor that will utilize Ohio's outstanding research talent and put the state at the epicenter of space-related technology."

The Lt. Governor added, “The very first action Governor Strickland and I took, literally minutes after our election the evening of November 7, was to jointly sign a letter encouraging this decision by NASA."

Ohio was in competition with Denver, Colorado for the testing portion of this project. The NASA Plum Brook facility is unique in that it will allow the crew exploration vehicle (CEV) to be assembled on-site and then tested in a neighboring building that will house equipment to simulate vertical space travel.

The Job Ready Sites program is a competitive funding program designed to fill gaps in Ohio's business site offerings market and to create large-scale sites or facilities that currently do not exist or are not available in sufficient quantities within the state.

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Media contacts: Maria Smith at (614) 466-2382 or Kimber Perfect at (614) 644-0247