Austin-area rocket company lands a Florida launch site

Austin-area rocket company Firefly Aerospace has signed an agreement with Space Florida to launch business operations at Cape Canaveral Spaceport.

Under the deal, Firefly Aerospace -- which is based in Cedar Park -- will build a 150,000-square-foot rocket manufacturing facility at Space Florida's Exploration Park and establish a launch facility at Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 20.

Firefly said it plans to invest $52 million in the project and "bring more than 200 high paying jobs to Florida." Space Florida will in turn match up to $18.9 million of Firefly's infrastructure investments through the Florida Department of Transportation Spaceport Improvement Plan.

The company, which has raised more than $21 million, is building two rockets -- Alpha and Beta -- for shorter and longer space missions.

"Firefly Aerospace is proud to be the newest member of the Florida Space Coast family," Firefly CEO Tom Markusic said in a written statement. "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."

Markusic was once a research scientist at NASA and has also worked for space companies including Blue Origin. He founded Firefly Aerospace as Firefly Space Systems in 2014 along with other aerospace and business experts.

In 2016, a European investor withdrew support following Britain's Brexit vote to leave the European Union, and the Firefly Aerospace filed for bankruptcy protection. After receiving backing from Noosphere Venture Partners, the company emerged as Firefly Aerospace.

Last year, Firefly was one of nine companies chosen by the U.S. space agency to compete to deliver NASA instruments, experiments and other exploratory devices to the moon, which NASA plans to use as a testing ground before competing similar missions to Mars.

NASA announced last year that it would be returning to the moon via commercial and international partners, saying in May that "long-term exploration and development of the Moon will give us the experience for the next giant leap -- human missions to Mars and destinations beyond."

Firefly faces a number of rivals in the small-launch market including Virgin Orbit, based in Long Beach, Calif., Rocket Lab, based in Huntington Beach, Calif., and Vector Launch, based in Burlingame, Calif.

"The space industry is expected to be the fastest growing segment of the worldwide economy in the coming decades, with analysts predicting a global market of more than $1 trillion a year by 2040," Markusic said. "Firefly Aerospace is uniquely positioned to be successful in this new economy. With launch sites on both coasts and a mass production facility to support future growth, our global team of over 300 highly accomplished engineers and technicians will provide space solutions from (low Earth orbit) to the surface of the Moon and beyond."

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.