SLSL Ribbon-cutting Ceremony

Representatives of the NASA-Kennedy Space Center and the state of Florida prepare to cut the ribbon officially opening the Space Life Sciences Lab at a ceremony at the new lab. In the front row, from left, are Dr. Samuel Durrance, executive director of the Florida Space Research Institute; Jim Kennedy, director of the Kennedy Space Center; Frank T. Brogan, president of the Florida Atlantic University; The Honorable Toni Jennings, lieutenant governor of the state of Florida; and Catherine and Grier Kirkpatrick, children of the late Sen. George Kirkpatrick. In the back row, from left, are Debra Holliday, director for Facilities and Construction, Florida Space Authority; Dan LeBlanc, president and chief operating officer of Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts at KSC, Inc.; Jose Perez-Morales, NASA Project Manager for the Space Life Sciences Lab; and Capt. Winston E. Scott, executive director of the Florida Space Authority. Completed in August, the facility encompasses more than 100,000 square feet and was formerly known as the Space Experiment Research and Processing Laboratory or SERPL. The state, through the Florida Space Authority, built the research lab which is host to NASA, NASA’s Life Sciences Services contractor Dynamac Corp., Bionetics Corp., and researchers from the University of Florida. Dynamac Corp. leases the facility. The Florida Space Research Institute is responsible for gaining additional tenants from outside the NASA community.