New York (CNN Business) There are about two dozen launch pads along Florida's coast that have been abandoned for years. And the future of this area looked bleak when NASA's Space Shuttle program ended in 2011. The Cape has long been NASA's launch destination of choice, and it's hosted some of the most famous missions in US history dating back to the Apollo moon landings. It's a sign that even as the spaceflight industry undergoes drastic changes, Florida is still a top launch destination. "Everybody thought the Cape had just been padlocked with the retirement of the Shuttle," Dale Ketcham, vice president of government affairs for state-funded development group Space Florida, told CNN Business.

Source: CNN February 28, 2019 19:30 UTC