Hoping to tap into an economic engine that can weather the recession, Gov. Martin O'Malley unveiled a strategy Tuesday for bolstering the space industry's foothold in the state by lobbying for more federal dollars and emphasizing science and mathematics in schools.
O'Malley, speaking to more than 500 aerospace industry representatives in Greenbelt, outlined a plan to harness what he characterized as the state's "unsung economic hero." The vision is similar to one the governor has articulated for the biotechnology industry as a way to further move the state from a manufacturing- to a knowledge-based economy.
The plan was announced on the heels of a successful mission to repair the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. It would build on what has become the state's space industrial complex - federal facilities such as the Goddard Space Center and Space Telescope Science Institute, as well as many of the largest companies in the space sector that have operations here.
"We have never, sadly, in the past really aligned our marketing efforts, our workforce efforts, our economic development efforts with the tremendous assets and competitive advantages that we have," said O'Malley, a Democrat.
With a strapped budget, O'Malley said the new impetus will streamline and leverage existing programs, rather than inject new state dollars. O'Malley said he would work with the congressional delegation to double NASA's budget for earth science and global warming monitoring and continue funding the James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble successor scheduled for launch in 2014.
The governor also supports a proposed Goddard-based education center to encourage students to pursue space careers and also plans to create a Federal Facilities Advisory Panel and convene a summit later this year to discuss how to capitalize on partnerships with the federal government.
Philip Ardanuy, chief scientist at Raytheon Information Solutions and president of the Maryland Space Business Roundtable, a professional organization that hosted O'Malley on Tuesday, said he appreciated the governor's commitment to teaching science, technology, engineering and math. "That's our future," he said.
