Relativity Space is building a $350 million manufacturing and research campus in Florida. The aerospace company is officially scaling up production operations for its 284-foot Terran R rocket to meet the aggressive demands of upcoming deep-space contracts.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Space Florida made the official expansion announcement on Tuesday during the Farnborough International Airshow. The project will anchor thousands of high-paying aerospace jobs in the state through 2034.
Operating under the internal codename Project Forge, the company is actively evaluating the Titusville target site to support its upcoming NASA Aeolus Mars mission partnership. The specific location under review is the Space Coast Regional Airport. Local officials are pushing hard for the deal, with Titusville Mayor Andrew Connors publicly stating his administration’s active efforts to win the facility.
The state is backing the factory heavily. Relativity Space is eligible for up to $134 million from the Florida Department of Transportation’s Spaceport Improvement Program. The Space Florida Board of Directors also approved up to $350 million in conduit financing to get the campus operational.
Relativity is currently conducting due diligence on the airport property, checking zoning constraints and wetlands layouts. This new footprint builds directly on the company’s ongoing investments at Cape Canaveral’s historic Launch Complex 16, a pad originally used during the Gemini and Apollo programs.
Why the 2028 Aeolus Mission Drives the Factory Expansion
The immediate driver for Project Forge is not just standard satellite delivery. Relativity Space holds a major public-private partnership with NASA for the 2028 Aeolus mission to Mars. The scope of that contract requires an entirely new level of industrial output.
Because Relativity is contracted to supply both the launch vehicle and the spacecraft itself for the Aeolus mission, the company needs a vastly expanded manufacturing floor. Producing the massive Terran R at scale requires dedicated research and assembly space that existing facilities simply cannot handle.
By securing a dedicated $350 million campus just miles from the launch pad, Relativity drastically reduces logistical friction. They can assemble the 284-foot launch vehicles and the Mars-bound spacecraft in Titusville and move them directly to Launch Complex 16.