Newberry in Space? Officials Could Support Nasa Moon Base Initiative
On October 6, Newberry city officials took a tour of the Nasa Kennedy Space Center and got a tour of facilities used by astronauts.
(City of Newberry)
In a Facebook video, Newberry Mayor Tim Marden said Nasa wanted to know what the city was doing with Newberry AgTech, a large-scale project set to develop an Industrial Hydroponic Greenhouse (IHG) facility.
The project is managed by Harvest Singularity “We are a company that focuses on agriculture technology, developing and operating 100% controlled environment hydroponic greenhouses,” said CEO Charles Garza in a May 2025 video about the project. “We have a plan to build ten of these facilities in the State of Florida initially. We're looking at Newberry as our first site to develop our first farm.”
Harvest Singularity and UF IFAS representatives joined Newberry officials at the Kennedy Space Center.
Marden said that Nasa officials wanted to incorporate factors or information about the project into “their system of decisions about what they’re gonna do when they start colonizing actually the moon… and then even Mars beyond that.”
Nasa intends to establish "humanity’s first lunar outpost, a place where astronauts will live, work, and explore near the Moon’s South Pole."
“It’s pretty interesting that Newberry has a seat at the table during this discussion,” Marden said.
“We learned about Mission Moon Base today,” said Newberry City Manager Jordan Marlowe. “We’re gonna have a colony on the moon by 2035 and Newberry has a role to play in helping.”
Marden indicated that he envisions “Newberry having stuff on the moon, potentially on Mars for our kids…”
Addressing who he called “the naysayers,” Marlowe said that batteries made in Newberry are used on the international space station.
Marden said that further “commentary” and “context” to the Nasa-Newberry partnership is coming soon.
