Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday announced a $600 million expansion of Blue Origin’s Rocket Park campus at Cape Canaveral Spaceport, a project expected to create 500 aerospace jobs on Florida’s Space Coast.
The expansion will include an estimated 830,000-square-foot upper-stage manufacturing facility designed to increase the volume and mass that can be delivered to orbit from Florida, according to the governor’s office. The jobs are expected to have an average salary of more than $98,000.
“Blue Origin’s expansion is proof that when you get the fundamentals right, the best companies bring their best jobs to you,” said DeSantis. “Florida has created the ideal environment where companies can succeed, scale and keep choosing Florida over and over again—promoting growth that reinforces the state’s position a national leader in advanced manufacturing and aviation and aerospace—bolstering Florida’s Space Coast and beyond.”
Blue Origin is currently the only company that both manufactures and launches rockets from Florida, state officials said. The company has operated in Florida since 2015 and has grown to nearly 4,000 employees, 11 sites in Brevard and Orange counties, and more than $2.3 billion in investments across 500 Florida suppliers, according to Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp.
The project will be supported through the Spaceport Improvement Program, a partnership between Space Florida and the Florida Department of Transportation. Since 2012, the program has funded 48 major infrastructure projects, using more than $531 million in state investment to help attract $3.3 billion in private industry funding.
