Kennedy Space Center will be the site of an enormous satellite manufacturing facility that will cost $300 million to build and create 2,100 jobs with an average annual wage of $84,000 by late 2025, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday.
Terran Orbital has selected the Launch and Landing Facility operated by Space Florida, the state’s development agency for aeronautics and space flight, for a 600,000 square-foot plant to manufacture small satellites for commercial and national defense use, the governor said during a news conference at the site.
“This will be the largest satellite manufacturing facility in the entire world,” DeSantis said.
The state is investing $40 million in improved infrastructure at the site, formerly a landing zone for the space shuttle, including roads, power, retention ponds, and communications systems that will benefit all the companies operating there, said Dale Ketcham, vice president for government and external relations at Space Florida.
Additionally, the state will help Terran arrange the $300 million in private financing, he said. “The debt is owed to the private sector, not the taxpayers.”
And the company may be eligible for additional assistance through a 50:50 match with the Florida Department of Transportation, Ketcham said in a telephone interview.
Last year saw 1,200 satellites launched into space, triple the number during 2019, with projections that 50,000 satellites will have been launched by 2030, DeSantis said.
He pointed to additional recent deals, including a May agreement with Sierra Nevada Corp. to use the facility to land its Dream Chaser space plane, which is designed to send supplies to the International Space Station; to bring the headquarters of CAE USA, which operates flight-training facilities, to Tampa International Airport; and to bring the headquarters of Redwire Space, which makes space-flight components, to Jacksonville.
DeSantis has also promoted vocational education to prepare workers to jobs in the space industry.
Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, chairwoman of the Space Florida board of directors, put total statewide investment in commercial space exploration at $1.5 billion.
In addition to rocket launches, the industry includes supply chain, manufacturing, and logistics, Nuñez said, providing thousands of “high-quality, high-wage jobs.”
The facility will manufacture “cubesats,” or powerful, miniaturized satellites small enough to “fit into the palm of your hand,” Terran CEO Marc Bell said. The devices use radar to penetrate cloud cover, storms, smoke, and even to pierce the night, to observe oil spills, wildfires, and national security threats.
The facility will handle all aspects of satellite construction, including fabrication of all components, he said.
“We will be able to produce over 1,000 satellites a year here and over 1 million satellite components annually, all at a single location here,” Bell said.
The company chose Kennedy Space Center, in Brevard County on the Atlantic coast, because of its historic ties to space flight and its status as “a growing hub for commercial space-based activity,” he said, plus the state’s logistical help and skilled workforce.
from Daily Florida Press https://dailyfloridapress.com/major-satellite-manufacturing-plant-coming-to-kennedy-space-center/
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