Blue Origin’s massive manufacturing site in Brevard County is primed to expand with a new $600 million facility to speed up New Glenn rocket production, the governor’s office announced Friday.

The investment, dubbed “Project Horizon,” would bring an 830,000-square foot building dedicated to constructing more of New Glenn’s upper stage at the company’s sprawling site within Rocket Park, adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Merritt Island, The expansion would bring 500 jobs at an average salary of $98,000 a year. The space would add onto the more than 3 million square feet of manufacturing facilities on site.

“Blue Origin’s expansion is proof that when you get the fundamentals right, the best companies bring their best jobs to you,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis in a press release. “Florida has created the ideal environment where companies can succeed, scale and keep choosing Florida over and over again — promoting growth that reinforces the state’s position a national leader in advanced manufacturing and aviation and aerospace — bolstering Florida’s Space Coast and beyond.”

Already the site employs about 4,000 people. Late last year, it opened Lunar Plant 1, where Jeff Bezos’ company will build out its crewed moon lander Blue Moon MK 2, an effort expected to add 1,500 jobs as it ramps up.

“Project Horizon is the latest and most ambitious chapter in Blue Origin’s decade-long commitment to Florida,” said Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp. “Since 2015, we’ve scaled to nearly 4,000 employees, invested more than $2.3 billion across 500 Florida suppliers, and expanded to 11 sites across Brevard and Orange Counties. And we’re just getting started.”

That includes the Merritt Island campus plus the launch pad and launch prep facilities at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36 as well as a second lunar lander manufacturing site in Cape Canaveral. The company also has rocket recovery equipment at Port Canaveral.

New Glenn has launches three times to date, and a fourth could be coming shortly after the Federal Aviation Administration cleared the rocket to launch again after a problem on the upper stage on the last flight grounded the rocket. The heavy-lift rocket is part of NASA’s Artemis plans, responsible for launching its moon landers.

The investment from Blue Origin is using funds from Florida’s Spaceport Improvement Program, one of the prime tools touted by Space Florida, the state’s aerospace finance and development authority, to attract aerospace business to the state. Partnering with the Florida Department of Transportation, the program has funded 48 major infrastructure projects since it was created in 2012.

Space Florida CEO Rob Long stated the program has taken $531 million of state fund investment that in turn has attracted $3.3 billion in private industry funding across Florida’s spaceport program.

“This latest Blue Origin project is the latest validation of the Florida model and strengthens what makes Florida truly unique: our ability to support the full lifecycle of launch,” Long said. “When a company can design, build and launch from the same state, it creates efficiencies that are hard to replicate anywhere else. Blue Origin continues to choose the state that has spent more than a decade systematically building the conditions for them to scale here.”

For now Blue Origin is the only company to build its rockets and launch from Florida, although that will change when SpaceX’s $1.8 billion investment on Starship manufacturing and launch facilities on the Space Coast gets complete.

The state had brought criticism earlier this year from then Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro, who retired this month, warning it was falling behind the likes of Texas and Alabama — which have much higher state funds allocated to attracting aerospace companies to the state.

Officials with Space Florida have defended the state’s approach, noting its role is to facilitate funding and invest in infrastructure more attractive to proven companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin.

“Space Florida’s charge has always been to think long-term: to make investments today that position our state for leadership tomorrow,” said Jeanette Nuñez, chair of the Space Florida Board of Directors. “Adding another Blue Origin project to our roster is that vision brought to life, and it reaffirms Florida as the world’s premier destination for aerospace.”

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