Bill Nelson Bill Nelson Clarence William Nelson II (born September 29, 1942) is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Florida, first elected to that seat in 2000. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1972 to 1978 and in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1991. In January 1986, he became the second sitting member of Congress to fly in space when he served as a payload specialist on the Space Shuttle "Columbia". Before entering politics he served in the U.S. Army Reserve in the
Space Shuttle orbiter Space Shuttle orbiters were assembled at Rockwell's assembly facility in Palmdale, California, at the federally owned Plant 42 complex. In addition to the test articles and orbiters produced for use in the Shuttle program, there are also various mock-up replicas on display throughout the United States: Space Shuttle orbiter The Space Shuttle orbiter was the spaceplane component of the Space Shuttle, a partially reusable orbital spacecraft system that was part of the Space Shuttle program. Operated by NASA, the U.S. space agency, this vehicle could carry astronauts and payloads into low Earth orbit, perform in-space operations, then re-enter the atmosphere