Editorials

Opportunity: US Space Academy would be a good fit for W.Va.

Mountaineers are always ... asking to be considered for major federal projects?

This time, Gov. Patrick Morrisey has announced he hopes the Mountain State will be considered for the president's planned U.S. Space Academy, where officer candidates for the Space Force would be trained alongside astronauts and others flying missions for civilian space flight programs.

"We're nimble," Morrisey said. "We have the resources."

And of course, we have fantastic locations such as the I-79 technology park in South Fairmont, which already contains contractors working with NASA.

As Morrisey noted, we have the history -- Katherine Johnson, Homer Hickam, Chuck Yeager, Jon McBride, Andrew Morgan, Sharon Hagle and Emily Calandrelli come to mind.

This announcement carries considerably more positivity with it than Morrisey's other recent announcement regarding the federal Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus. Perhaps that will give the push greater longevity.

But the deadline for application to be considered is Oct. 26. Other states have some pretty good claims, too.

"West Virginia helped write the history of America's space program, and now we have an opportunity to compete for a role in its next chapter," Morrisey said. "This will be a tough competition, but West Virginia has a strong case to make. We are going to fight for every opportunity that can bring good-paying jobs to our state, grow our economy, and help make West Virginia more affordable for our families."

Wonderful.

Let's get this one right, and submitted on time.

If we're going to shoot for the moon, we can't also be shooting ourselves in the foot.

West Virginia IS a good choice for a project such as the U.S. Space Academy. Let's not give the federal government any more reason to doubt it.