Former Space Shuttle payload specialist Democrat Bill Nelson defeated Republican Representative Bill McCollum on Tuesday for the Senate seat from Florida. In August, Nelson told Florida Today that he would make a piloted mission to Mars a legislative priority. “In my lifetime, what I want to see is a mission from Planet Earth to Planet Mars with an international crew that returns safely,” Nelson told the newspaper. “I think we can do that. We have the technology, we just have to have the will to do.”