Maine's efforts to play a bigger role in spaceflight took two big steps forward this week.
On Tuesday, the board of the brand new Maine Space Corporation held its first meeting. The corporation is a state creation, intended to facilitate and coordinate Maine's entry into the satellite-launching business.
On Wednesday, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson visited. He spoke to nearly 100 businesspeople and students, and visited the headquarters of Brunswick rocket-maker bluShift Aerospace.
bluShift is one of about 30 Maine companies that are said to be dedicated to work related to spaceflight. Another 80 Maine aerospace firms provide goods and services as part of their wider businesses.
In Brunswick, Nelson said they're just the kind of partners the space agency is looking for.
"Because you are illustrative of one of the new modi operandi of NASA. This time, as we go back to the moon, we go with our commercial partners," he said.
The Legislature approved the new Maine Space Corp. to coordinate state efforts and, as project coordinator Emily Dwinnells said, it will also look into providing key pieces of a space infrastructure.
"To establish a data analytics center, to work on developing a project that will use satellites to track carbon. We are looking toward a grant that will help establish shared equipment, to further support the Maine startups that are involved in space," she said.
Dwinnells said the last piece is creation of a launch site, probably in northern or Down East Maine, from where it would be safe to launch rockets into polar orbits. bluShift has plans to launch from a barge just off Steuben, but it still must finish testing a new, more powerful engine.
The nascent Maine space community will come together again in November when a three-day conference is planned for Portland.
