Sen. Moran brings NASA Administrator to the Cosmosphere and a ranch, showing off Kansas
Alice Mannette
On Friday, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., decided to show off central Kansas to the NASA Administrator, the highest ranking official at the agency.
The administrator, former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., toured the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson and visited a Sedgwick farm that uses technology from NASA to help with irrigation.
After visiting McCurry Bros. farm & ranch in Sedgwick, Moran took Nelson to D-J Engineering in Augusta and ended their visit at Wichita State University.
Nelson, who served for more than four decades in Congress, was the former chair of the House space subcommittee and flew aboard the Columbia space shuttle as a payload specialist in January 1986.
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Bringing everyone together for space exploration
Similar to Moran and Nelson being from two different political parties, the Cosmosphere brings both Russian and U.S. space exploration to the forefront.
Jim Remar, the CEO of the Cosmosphere, showed the two men several relics that piece together the history of space exploration in the former Soviet Union and the U.S.
Nelson said he would love to bring the head of the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos, Yury Borisov, to the Cosmosphere, "once the Ukrainian War is over."
Nelson called the museum, "spectacular."
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Connecting industry in Kansas with NASA
Sen. Moran, the lead Republican on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, is on a mission to not only tell people in Washington, D.C. about Kansas but to bring them out to the Sunflower State and show them its industry and inventiveness.
"I want the Administrator of NASA to see what assets we have in Kansas," he said."(I'm) trying to make sure that our manufacturers in this south central Kansas region, which do so much work in commercial aviation, know that there's potential to use their same employees and their equipment to work for NASA."
In nine days, NASA's Space Launch System moon rocket is scheduled to launch. Some of the materials used on that rocket, set to launch on Aug. 29, were manufactured in Augusta, at D-J Engineering. Moran believes more Kansas businesses should think about space manufacturing.
"We can diversify our economy here and make sure that our manufacturers are engaged with defense, manufacturing defense equipment, and space," Moran said. "I think space is going to be one of the growing areas."
Along with diversifying manufacturing, Moran wants to bring more jobs and attention to the state. But most importantly, he wants to show young Kansans the opportunities space exploration can provide.
"Space is one of the most significant opportunities we have to capture young people to be interested in science," he said. "In my generation, they were landing on the moon, and people … decided they wanted to be astronauts or engineers."
Space exploration can help farmers on earth
Nelson, who grew up on a ranch in Melbourne, Florida, obtained his first Santa Gertrudis bull when he was a youngster. By 18, he had a herd of 20 cattle.
He sold them and financed his college, he said.
Nelson enjoyed looking at the Black Angus cattle on Greg and Pam McCurry's family farm, which was built in the 1930s.
"I've never seen a barbed wire fence that could hold an Angus," Nelson told the small group of farmers and ranchers.
He also told them how NASA was helping farmers with data.
"We're making these investments in the capabilities that we'll have 10 years from now," he said.
"We'll look to make that even more accessible," said Karen St. Germaine, Ph.D., the division director of the Earth Science Division, in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA.
Early next week, St. Germaine will travel to western Kansas and Nebraska, educating farmers and ranchers about the agency's capabilities to help with data for planting.
Not only can the equipment from NASA tell how much water is in the ground in a given location, but it can also help educate farmers on where to plant certain crops.
"They're moving in a direction of being able to provide significant valuable information to help farmers be more successful," Moran said. "(This) helps particularly in times of water shortage and it shows how to use precision agriculture to grow the right crops in the right place."