Economic development minister Grant Gibbons has visited Nasa headquarters in Washington, DC to promote Bermuda’s space and satellite business programme.

Dr Gibbons, who was joined by permanent secretary William Francis, met with the head of the United States Space Agency, Major General Charles Frank Bolden Jr, the Deputy Administrator, Dava Newman, and Al Condes from the Office of International and Interagency Relations.

According to a press release from the Bermuda Government, Dr Gibbons and General Bolden discussed the longstanding Bermuda-Nasa relationship, extending back to the early 1960s, including John Glenn’s historic orbital flight in 1962.

He noted the vital role that the Nasa Cooper’s Island facility played in providing downrange tracking capabilities for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo manned space flight missions.

The minister also shared that several Bermudians who worked at the Nasa facility were still very active in promoting the history of Bermuda’s involvement and had created a website, nasabermuda.com.

Bermuda has an agreement with Nasa for the deployment of its mobile tracking facility in Bermuda to support the launch programme. Nasa is also in discussion with the Government for a more permanent facility located on Cooper’s Island adjacent to the original buildings.

General Bolden further discussed two Agency programmes open to international students, including Bermudians:

• Nasa’s International Internship Programme for interns, aimed at university undergraduate and graduate level students;

• The Nasa International Space University, which develops the future leaders of the world’s space community by providing interdisciplinary educational programmes to students and space professionals in an international, intercultural environment.

Dr Gibbons noted that in 2014, he, on behalf of the Bermuda Government, and former United States Consul General Bob Settje, had signed an agreement with Nasa, opening the door for local Bermudian students to participate in Nasa’s Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment programme.

While in Washington, Dr Gibbons and Mr Francis held meetings with a number of new space and satellite companies to promote Bermuda as a jurisdiction for satellite network administration, space business and risk management. In addition, they held meetings with some existing space business partners, including SES, EchoStar and SpaceX.