Firefly Aerospace's plan to bring satellites to orbit and supplies to the moon is getting closer to liftoff.
The Cedar Park-based rocket company said Friday that it has signed a new term sheet with Space Florida to set up launch equipment and manufacturing facilities at Cape Canaveral Spaceport in Florida.
“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," CEO Tom Markusic said in a news release.
Under the deal, Firefly will invest $52 million in its operations and add 200 high-paying jobs in Florida. Space Florida, which is the spaceport's development authority, will match up to $18.9 million of Firefly's infrastructure investments.
Firefly told Inno that it currently has more than 180 employees in the Austin area, which serves as its main engineering and U.S. research and development facility. They're expanding the team locally, in addition to the 239 jobs projected for manufacturing and launch in Florida.
Firefly's Florida expansion is yet another milestone of the company's recent growth.
In early January, the company successfully tested its Alpha second-stage rockets. It has also announced plans for an initial launch in December next year at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Coming up during South By Southwest, Firefly will host a FIRE model rocketry competition for select teams at its rocket-testing site in Briggs, about 50 miles north of Austin. It will also be hosting private tours and test fire events.
Later in the month, on March 30, the company is hosting its Base 11 Space Challenge teams on a tour of its testing facility. Those student teams are part of groups competing for a $1 million prize, which goes to teams that design, build and launch a liquid-propelled, single stage rocket to an altitude of 100 kilometers.
