Millions in new funding boost Florida’s Space Coast launch infrastructure
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. —
Our Space Coast continues to grow, and now another major rocket company is inching closer to a launch date. This comes as several other commercial space companies received millions of dollars Thursday to support infrastructure needed to launch more rockets.
“This is an indicator of what’s to come,” University of Central Florida planetary scientist Philip Metzger said.
This week, the company secured funding to develop its next project, a larger rocket called Nova Block 2. In total, $2.3 billion has been secured.
“The space economy is growing explosively,” Metzger said. “Over the last few years, we’ve gone from one launch a month, and now it’s almost one launch a day.”
Space Florida announced funding for several new projects during its Thursday morning meeting.
Relativity Space received $20 million for a payload processing facility, an upper-stage testing facility, and to expand its launch pad site.
Blue Origin received $2.5 million for its payload processing facility.
ULA received $10.8 million for a new water treatment facility.
SpaceX received $7.7 million for improvements to the NASA Causeway.
All of this will help increase launch cadence among the companies.
“NASA is using less of our taxpayer money to do launching and other activities in space because the commercial sector is picking up the slack,” Metzger said.