Government officials led by Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation, the Hon. Chester Cooper and others gathered on Cape Eleuthera on Tuesday evening to witness the first landing of SpaceX Falcon 9 in The Bahamas.
Mr. Davis shared his impression with reporters moments after the landing. He said, “I’m so proud and privileged to have been a part of this history making moment. It also speaks to what our administration is doing in respect to embracing innovation, entrepreneurship and ensuring that we are prepared for this new world that is unfolding before us. A brave new world is unfolding with technology that we are seeing happening here now. And to know that Bahamian brains and mind is behind some of these innovative thing. You have Aisha Bowe, several other Bahamians are working at NASA and at SpaceX and they are doing fantastically well. For us to be opening this era of space industry it allows us to keep our brains at home in this affair and we hope to develop this going forward.”
Minister Cooper who has led the charge in ensuring that the landing become a reality told ZNS News, “I am humbled to be the minister responsible for tourism and aviation at this point in history. This is groundbreaking. It’s an historic moment. In The Bahamas its an opportunity for us to participate in space technology. Who would have thought a small country, 400,000 people, with the might that we display can be so engaged in aerospace technology but we have Bahamians like Aisha, like Denton Gibson, like Jason Murray all around the world actively engaged and I hope that today will inspire more young people to participate in aerospace technology and to aspire to go to space. This is good for stem education. It’s good for the spirit of the Bahamian people, for ingenuity and for innovation. I’m truly excited today for the first successful landing in The Bahamas on a drone ship in the Exuma Sound.”
The Falcon 9 landing on Tuesday is the first of 19 expected landings in The Bahamas.
