Blue Origin Expands Merritt Island, Florida, Manufacturing Operations

Area Development News Desk

06/06/2026

Aerospace company Blue Origin plans to expand its operations in Merritt Island, Florida. The $600 million project is expected to create 500 jobs in Brevard County.

The investment will include the construction of an approximately 830,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, located at the company's existing Rocket Park campus, that will produce New Glenn rocket upper stages.

"Project Horizon is the latest and most ambitious chapter in Blue Origin's decade-long commitment to Florida," said Dave Limp, CEO of Blue Origin. “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.”

The project will be supported by the Spaceport Improvement Program (SIP), an incentive under the state’s Transportation Department.

“Under Governor DeSantis’ leadership, Florida is a national leader in aerospace innovation and advanced manufacturing, and Blue Origin’s expansion at Cape Canaveral further strengthens the state’s position as the premier hub for the future of space commerce,” noted J. Alex Kelly, Florida Secretary of Commerce. “Blue Origin’s latest investment into Florida’s Space Coast not only supports high-wage job creation and strengthens Florida’s aerospace workforce, but it reinforces the long-term economic impact of strategic infrastructure investments across our spaceport system.”

Blue Origin develops rockets, spacecraft, and space transportation systems for commercial, civil, and national security missions. The company’s operations include launch vehicle development, spacecraft manufacturing, rocket engine production, and spaceflight services.

“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,” added Col. Rob Long (Ret.), President and CEO of Space Florida. “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.”

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