Florida Tech Leads FAA Center of Excellence Meeting for Commercial Space Transportation in Washington, D.C.

MELBOURNE, FLA.—Florida Institute of Technology was one of nine core universities in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation Third Annual Technical Meeting. The meeting, which was held on Oct. 28-30 in Washington, D.C., was organized by Tristan Fiedler, Florida Tech associate vice president for research.

Special guests included keynote speakers Florida Congressman Bill Posey and T. Dwayne McCay, Florida Tech executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Established in 2010, the center makes it possible for the FAA to work with universities and their industry partners to conduct research in environment and aviation safety, and conduct other activities to assure a safe and efficient air transportation system.

The meeting had technical presentations, and government, academia and industry representatives. Research topics included space traffic management and operations; space transportation operations, technologies and payloads; human spaceflight; and space transportation industry viability.