We are going back to the moon, and Ohio is playing a key role in making it happen. NASA’s Artemis mission will send astronauts to Earth’s moon for the first time since 1972, and Ohio’s NASA Glenn Research Center and Armstrong Test Facility is responsible for the project’s “power, propulsion, communications, advanced materials and testing,” Crain’s Cleveland reports. Since the Artemis project began, NASA Glenn “has partnered with around 570 Ohio companies involved in providing the parts, technology and research” and “has issued 18 research licenses and four commercialization licenses for companies looking to advance NASA initiatives and commercialize the tech for consumers,” according to the article. Ohio has “competed and won out against Alabama, Texas, Florida and other Midwest states for NASA, U.S. military and Department of Defense projects” since the Artemis project was announced.
Ohio’s success “comes from an aggressive advocacy strategy modeled after a similar one” used with Dayton’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. In 2020, JobsOhio President and CEO J.P. Nauseef “added the Military and Federal sector as an area of focus to the mission of the state’s unique private non-profit economic development agency.” That idea “came from his experience with Wright-Pat and the most recent Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) that ended with the move of U.S. Air Force support missions in aerospace medicine research, human performance and sensors research to the Dayton-area base.” Since the creation of JobsOhio’s military sector and the mission expansion at Wright-Pat, “the state added the first Air National Guard cyberspace wing in Mansfield, and the state was awarded one of 12 microelectronics consortiums by the Department of Defense.” JobsOhio has added out-of-state marketing “to tell the story of Ohio’s NASA, military testing and research capabilities at Armstrong coupled with the robust manufacturing and aerospace supply chain with companies like Airbus and Boeing.” Terrence Slaybaugh, vice president of sites and infrastructure at JobsOhio, said Ohio’s assets are unique “and we know that we can use these assets to attract more space aerospace tech to the state.” For more, read the full article (subscription may be required).
