Florida Aerospace Cluster 2026

Space Florida, which calls itself Florida's Aerospace Finance and Development Authority, is created in law as an independent special district to grow a world-leading aerospace industry in Florida.

Section 331.302 of the Florida Statutes directs it to promote aerospace business through business financing, spaceport operations, research and development, workforce development and education programs, says it may not endorse candidates or fund campaigns, and makes it subject to chapter 189 (s. 331.302, Florida Statutes). The statute also says Space Florida is not an agency as defined in ss. 216.011 and 287.012.

Space Florida's own history says it was formed in 2006 when three existing state space entities were combined into a public corporation, and it names Northrop Grumman, Blue Origin and EVE Air Mobility among companies with long-term relationships (Space Florida, About). Its corporate office is at 505 Odyssey Way, Suite 300, Exploration Park, phone (321) 730-5301. Space Florida's program page cites s. 331.3011(3), Florida Statutes, as designating it the single point of contact for state aerospace activities with federal agencies, the military, state agencies and business (Space Florida, Spaceport Improvement Program).

Florida law names seven kinds of spaceport territory, from Cape Canaveral and Patrick Space Force Base in Brevard County to Eglin, Tyndall, Cecil Airport and Homestead, plus any FAA licensed spaceport Space Florida's board designates.

Space Florida's own territory page lists seven locations by name: Cape Canaveral Spaceport, Cecil Spaceport, Eglin Air Force Base, Cape San Blas, Space Coast Regional Airport and Spaceport, Homestead Air Reserve Base and Tyndall Air Force Base (Space Florida, Spaceport System Territory). Space Florida introduces its list as locations in Florida statute, but Cape San Blas does not appear by name in the text of s. 331.304 as fetched on October 18, 2026 (s. 331.304); the two lists are reported here as each source gives them. Space Florida adds that most territories do not currently support launches and serve instead as hubs for aerospace business.

Statute text quoted on the same Space Florida page requires it to prepare a spaceport master plan for the territories, listing recommended projects, funding levels and possible revenue sources for the State Transportation Trust Fund (Space Florida). The plans posted there are the Cape Canaveral Spaceport Complex Master Plan of 2017, the Florida Spaceport System Plan of 2018 and a Spaceport Improvement Program project handbook for 2026 to 2027; no system plan newer than 2018 is posted there.

Space Florida markets a runway, a launch complex, a research park, a life sciences lab and a rocket motor storage site, several of them on the Space Coast next to Kennedy Space Center.

Its facilities page lists the Launch and Landing Facility, with a 15,000-foot runway that Space Florida manages under a 30-year agreement with NASA and opens to commercial customers; Space Launch Complex 20 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, redeveloped with the Space Force and Space Launch Delta 45 for newer launch companies; Exploration Park just outside the Kennedy gates, where buildings meet LEED Silver or equivalent standards; and the 104,000-square-foot Space Life Sciences Lab, about 40 miles east of Orlando (Space Florida, Facilities).

At Camp Blanding, Space Florida manages an Operational Storage Facility on Florida National Guard property at Camp Blanding, with 69,560 square feet of storage on 56 acres, originally built for Lockheed Martin's Titan IV rocket motors and now used by United Launch Alliance for Atlas V rocket motor storage (Space Florida, Facilities). Space Florida also describes Florida's transportation network as quintamodal, with space counted alongside air, land, sea and rail.

Space Florida says it and the Florida Department of Transportation fund space transportation infrastructure together through the Spaceport Improvement Program, and its page credits the program with 48 major projects and more than 5,055 direct jobs over 13 years.

The same page gives more than $500 million of program investment against more than $3.3 billion of industry investment, $3.81 billion in total, and projects $289 million of program money over the next five years against $3.1 billion of industry identified need (Space Florida, Spaceport Improvement Program). Past projects named on the page include SpaceX's new processing and Starship manufacturing facility, Blue Origin's pad at Launch Complex 36, Boeing's Starliner assembly, an Airbus satellite facility, United Launch Alliance work at Launch Complex 41, and Cecil Spaceport's operations control center in Duval County.

Applications open each year from January to April, and a separate Space Transportation Infrastructure Development Fund takes proposals, usually from private companies, that Space Florida ranks for possible inclusion in the FDOT five-year work program. The program figures in this section are Space Florida's own; the Florida advanced manufacturing guide covers Blue Origin and SpaceX manufacturing in the state.

NASA's economic impact sheet for Florida credits agency activity with 35,685 jobs, $8.2 billion of economic output and $286.6 million of state tax revenue.

The sheet, which names Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island as NASA's Florida center, says Kennedy has 2,162 NASA federal employees and 18,290 contractors in Florida, and that each NASA civil service job in the state supports 15 more under an IMPLAN multiplier (NASA State Economic Impact, Florida). The Moon to Mars campaign alone is credited with 13,123 Florida jobs, $3 billion of output and $94.1 million of state tax revenue. NASA contracts sourced in Florida in fiscal 2023 came to $2.3 billion.

The sheet names the largest Florida-based NASA business contractors: Space Exploration Technologies at $583,621,014, Air Products and Chemicals at $148,448,132, PAE-SGT Partners at $97,026,069 and Jacobs Technology at $70,718,250. The University of Central Florida led NASA education funding in the state at $25,343,693, followed by the University of Florida at $15,178,911 (NASA). These are NASA's own figures; the Florida aerospace industry guide gives BLS jobs and pay data for the wider sector.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, with four Space Florida pages, sections 331.302 and 331.304 of the Florida Statutes on Online Sunshine, and the NASA state economic impact sheet for Florida.