Florida Tech, KSC Visitor Complex launch astronomy partnership featuring portable telescope

Astronomy events and scientific talks will be offered to thousands of future visitors at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, courtesy of a new partnership featuring faculty and students from the Florida Institute of Technology.

Announcing the partnership, Florida Tech President John Nicklow evoked the words of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking: "Look up at the stars, and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious."

Monday afternoon, Nicklow and Therrin Protze, chief operating officer of the KSC Visitor Complex, signed documents and shook hands to cement the astronomy agreement during an on-campus ceremony at the Homer R. Denius Student Center. SpacePerson, the visitor complex's astronaut mascot, and Florida Tech’s Pete the Panther mugged for photos.

Ortega Observatory: Years after Florida Tech's research telescope breaks down, students working to repair damages

Florida Tech's Ortega Observatory personnel will gain use of the KSC Visitor Complex's portable telescope to track asteroids, Nicklow said. The building at the tourist attraction that houses "Gateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex" was constructed with an elevated platform to house the telescope, Protze said.

Researchers with Florida Tech and the Orlando-based Florida Space Institute will use the telescope, which can fit inside an enclosed trailer for transport.

For example, the telescope could have been driven to swampy areas outside Miami to detect the shadow of the asteroid Leona passing in front of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse during a celestial event last December, said Luis Quiroga-Nuñez, assistant professor of astrophysics and director of Florida Tech’s Ortega Observatory.

Protze credited the late Sam Durrance, a retired NASA astronaut and Florida Tech professor emeritus, with helping spark the vision of the telescope partnership. A planetary astronomer, Durrance served as a payload specialist aboard Columbia during STS-35 in 1990 and Endeavour during STS-67 in 1995.

"The Ortega Observatory will coordinate educational programs for observational astronomy at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, providing events, observational events and scientific talks given by the faculty of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences here," Quiroga-Nuñez, the master of ceremonies, said during Monday's event.

Meanwhile, Florida's Tech's research telescope — which is featured on the home page of the university website — remains damaged and deteriorated after failing five to seven years ago inside the Ortega Observatory atop the F. W. Olin Physical Sciences Center.

A team of students and faculty is laboring to try to resurrect and upgrade the damaged optical instrument, which sports a 32-inch primary mirror. If all goes well, the malfunctioning device will resume detecting light by year's end, Quiroga-Nuñez said.

For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.

Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1

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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Florida Tech launch partnership