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Task Force on Space Industry Workforce and Economic Development Launches Interactive Web Site

June 24, 2010
Contact: John Atwood, (202) 482-4085

WASHINGTON - The Task Force on Space Industry Workforce and Economic Development today launched an interactive Web site to encourage public comment on ways to promote economic growth and sustainability in the Space Coast region as it adapts to changes in America's space program. The site offers valuable information about the work the Obama administration is doing to create jobs in the region by fostering a more supportive entrepreneurial environment.

"President Obama is committed to helping Florida's Space Coast adapt and thrive in the years ahead. The work of the Task Force adds to this administration's unprecedented level of transparency, and ensures public trust, participation and confidence," U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John Fernandez said. "Our efforts depend on the participation of local stakeholders who will ultimately devise and implement a bottom-up, regionally driven strategic plan."

"We consider the new interactive Web site an important tool to understand public concerns and challenges about the economic growth and well being of Florida's Space Coast," said Woodrow Whitlow, NASA's associate administrator for the Mission Support Directorate in Washington, D.C. "This tool and our other outreach efforts will help the Task Force prepare recommendations for the president that reflect the greatest needs and concerns of both the public and the area's aerospace-related industries." Public comment can be shared on the Task Force Web site at: http://www.nasa.gov/spacecoasttaskforce. The Task Force will review all input.

On May 3, President Obama issued a Presidential Memoranda establishing the Task Force on Space Industry Workforce and Economic Development. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden co-chair the Task Force, which is charged with developing, in collaboration with local stakeholders, an interagency action plan to enhance economic development strategies and plans along the Space Coast and affected aerospace communities. The Task Force will report its recommendations to the president by August 15.