The Space Coast is adding another rocket launch company to its ranks.
Small- to medium-sized rocket builder Firefly Aerospace announced Friday it plans to build a manufacturing facility on the Space Coast and launch its rockets from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
As part of Firefly’s agreement brokered with the state’s spaceport authority, Space Florida, the Florida Department of Transportation will reimburse 50 percent of what the company spends on common infrastructure, such as roads and utilities, up to $18.9 million. In return, Firefly has committed to spending $52 million locally.
The news follows much speculation that Cedar Park, Texas-based Firefly was the company behind Space Florida’s secretive “Project Maricopa,” which the agency first announced was in the works in November. At the time, Space Florida said it couldn’t reveal the name of the company until the terms of the contract were complete.
Reuters reported in January that sources said Firefly was behind Maricopa.
The move is a big step for Firefly, which was founded in 2014 to provide launch services for the small satellite market at lower prices. It has since grown to more than 300 employees. The demand for small satellites is expected to balloon, with the industry growing in value from $2.69 billion in 2017 to $6.91 billion by 2023, according to a study by advisory firm Mordor Intelligence.
Firefly already has plans to launch its Alpha rocket, capable of shuttling 2,200 pounds of payload to low Earth orbit, from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base in December.
Its deal with Space Florida will make it bi-coastal, with a manufacturing presence that will create 239 jobs with an annual wage of $70,000, plus benefits, Space Florida said. Firefly plans to manufacture its Alpha rockets, and later its larger Beta rockets, carrying up to nearly 9,000 pounds of payload, on the Space Coast.
By comparison, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 can deliver more than 50,000 pounds of payload to low Earth orbit.
“Our mass production manufacturing facility in Exploration Park will enable Firefly to produce 24 Alpha vehicles a year, enabling a launch cadence that will support a rapidly expanding global small satellite revolution and the commercialization of cislunar space,” said Firefly CEO Tom Markusic in a press release.
The company has not released a timeline for the completion of its manufacturing facility.
When done, Firefly will have a big-time neighbor at Exploration Park, the state-run complex near Kennedy Space Center. It plans to occupy the empty lot across from where Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin built its more than $200 million rocket factory, said Dale Ketcham, vice president of government and external relations at Space Florida.
“The significance will be that you’ll have manufacturing facilities for the small launch vehicles right across the street from the very big launch vehicles,” Ketcham said. That would be a win for the Cape as it continues to snag launch providers. Blue Origin has plans to build an additional testing and refurbishment center on the Space Coast. Satellite company OneWeb and supplier RUAG Space USA also have local factories in the works, too.
On the launch side, Firefly will set up camp at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s complex 20, the former site of Titan rocket launches dating back to the late 1950s. In advance of a deal, Space Florida entered into a Right of Entry agreement with the U.S. Air Force for the launch pad last year to fast-track its assessment of the site in advance of any formal work from its ultimate customer, Firefly.
The agency told the Orlando Sentinel last year that it was hoping to lure at least one of several companies to the Space Coast by the end of 2018, including small satellite launch provider Rocket Lab, which ultimately chose NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility for its U.S. launch site; Virgin Orbit, the cargo component of Virgin Galactic; and Firefly.
“Firefly was definitely the one we will much prefer in the long run because neither Orbit or Rocket Lab was going to do the manufacturing,” Ketcham said. “Everybody can launch here, but you might not manufacture here. It’s the Cape securing a credible, sizable role in the small launch vehicle manufacture industry.”
Want more space news? Follow Go For Launch on Facebook. Contact the reporter at cherrera@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5660; Twitter @ChabeliH