The Space Florida board of directors decided Monday to make a Space Force colonel its next president and CEO.
The board chaired by Lt. Gov. Jeannette Nunez opted to move forward with contract negotiations with Col. Robert A. Long, one of three finalists to replace Frank DiBello, who has been leading the state’s aerospace economic development entity since 2009. DiBello, who is retiring, made $325,000 a year.
Long is the commander for Space Launch Delta 30 and the Western Launch and Test Range at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It’s a similar role to the Space Launch Delta 45 group leader who oversees launches from the Space Coast.
The role has him overseeing $8.4 billion in assets and a $280 million annual budget and 11,000 military, civilian, and contractor personnel, according to the Space Force.
“It’s great to have run one of the largest installations in the Space Force and in the Department of the Air Force overall, as well as one of the busiest spaceports that we have in the country right now,” Long said during his initial interviews with the Space Florida CEO search committee back in June. He reportedly retired from the military in July.
He spent 23 years with the Air Force before transitioning to the Space Force.
“The great thing about the Space Force and the Air Force before that was the space community is relatively small. So I had an opportunity to be stationed out in Patrick and Cape Canaveral,” he said. “So I’ve experienced the launch business from that side as well.”
He met his wife when stationed in Brevard County.
“So that’s what’s largely bringing us back. But we love that part of Florida. The Space Coast is great. And so it’s an exciting opportunity for us,” he said.
Part of his pitch to become the next Space Florida leader was to grow the state’s relationship with the burgeoning Space Force presence, which includes the addition of the military branch’s training headquarters STARCOM and its warfighting and training group known as Delta 10 coming to Patrick Space Force Base.
“Those two things going to Patrick are going to be really vital in the near-term and create a great opportunity,” Long said, especially in concert with defense simulation work going on in Orlando.
He isn’t all about the Space Coast, though, noting that the state needs to pursue more launch capability with a potential future that could grow to as many as 400 launches a year.
“Capacity is going to be an issue,” he said. “It’s simply going to get full at some point. … You might as well take advantage of Florida’s geographic location to do that, whether that’s the Panhandle, further to the south or even up north.”
Florida’s space economy as Space Florida’s role in it has been one that he’s been eyeing from California, “seeing how that organization has really enabled and empowered the local economy there, and the growth especially after the shuttle program sunset about a decade ago and just to see the job creation and the economic growth that Space Florida has turbocharged really has been awesome.”
“There’s a little bit of jealousy on my account from the West Coast trying to figure out how we can kind of emulate that and really bring that to bear here,” he said.
But he said he was interviewing for the Space Florida opportunity as he was approaching retirement from the Space Force.
“It also gives me an opportunity as I leave military service and serving the country, I get to give back a public service role,” he said. “So there’s a lot of great things that all came together for me. I thought that this was an opportunity worth pursuing overall.”
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