Florida’s Space Coast is roaring back to life. Nearly a decade after the shuttle was retired, we’re on the brink of a new age of space exploration that leverages commercial and academic partnerships to send humans farther into the solar system than ever before. And NASA is working on its next big rocket, the Space Launch System, at the Kennedy Space Center.

To explore this bright future of space exploration from the sunshine state, WMFE hosted a panel of astronauts, scientists and space visionaries in front of a live studio audience in Orlando.

Panelists:

Robert Cabana – Director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. He was selected as an astronaut in 1985 and hisfirst flight was on STS-41 Discovery, launching in 1990. He’d go on to fly on three more shuttle missions, logging 37 days in space. He has served as the director of KSC since 2008.

Dr. Addie Dove – Planetary scientist and assistant professor of physics at the University of Central Florida. Her research interests include dusty plasmas, collisions and understanding how planets formed. Her experiments have flown to space on many different launch vehicles and she has conducted experiments on parabolic flights.

Bob Richards – As a space entrepreneur and futurist he co-founded the International Space University and the group Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. In 2008 he foundered the Singularity University, an institution based at the NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley dedicated to preparing humanity for accelerating technological change. Now he’s hoping to land the first commercial payload on the moon with his company Moon Express, where he serves as founder and CEO.

Nicole Stott – Retired NASA astronaut who served as a shuttle mission specialist and flight engineer on the International Space Station.