danielravennest
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2018
- Messages
- 3,708
- SLU Posts
- 9073
A different kind of Florida man:
This homeboy from the Florida coast, Bill Nelson, is now NASA's administrator.His paternal grandparents were homesteaders on what is now Kennedy Space Center property. He has a copy of the deed signed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1917. The 160 acres were located at the north end of the runway used for shuttle landings.
He grew up near Cape Canaveral, graduating from high school a year before Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space 60 years ago this week.
He went to law school and served in the U.S. Army Reserve during the Vietnam War. After a few terms in the Florida legislature, as a Democrat, he won election to Congress, first in the House and then the Senate, before a 2018 defeat ended his political career. It was while he was a congressman that he rode on the shuttle — just two weeks before Challenger’s astronauts perished during liftoff.