Uniting and advancing the region’s aerospace, defense and advanced manufacturing ecosystem.
Get in contactMission statement and the four pillars of the South Florida Aerospace Council.
Mission
Statement
The aerospace industry is undergoing its biggest transformation since the space race, and the places that will define this era have not yet been decided. South Florida has assembled the conditions to be among them in ways that have gone almost entirely unnoticed, including by the region itself. We must act decisively to ensure this rare alignment is not remembered as a missed opportunity of generational scale.
Our Four
Pillars
Four mandates in service of one outcome: an aerospace future South Florida builds on purpose.
The Case for
South Florida
An industry's inflection point.
The global space economy surpassed $600 billion in 2025, driven by the return to the Moon through NASA's Artemis program, a Space Force budget that has grown 124% in just two years, and the emergence of orbital data centers being developed by SpaceX, Google, and Blue Origin. Every one of these programs will generate enormous demand for the manufacturing, defense contracting, engineering, and supply chain infrastructure that supports them.
A region of prosperity.
The region has experienced one of the largest migrations of institutional capital in modern American history, operates the busiest freight airport in the United States, and is home to a mostly unknown network of aerospace education programs.
The industry is already here.
More than 150 aerospace and defense companies have a presence in South Florida. HEICO Corporation is headquartered in Hollywood. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing all maintain operations in the region. In 2025, AST SpaceMobile announced a satellite manufacturing facility in Homestead.
Mission Statement
The aerospace industry is undergoing its biggest transformation since the space race, and the places that will define this era have not yet been decided. South Florida has assembled the conditions to be among them in ways that have gone almost entirely unnoticed, including by the region itself. We must act decisively to ensure this rare alignment is not remembered as a missed opportunity of generational scale.
Our Four Pillars
Four mandates in service of one outcome: an aerospace future South Florida builds on purpose.
The Case for South Florida
An industry's inflection point.
The global space economy surpassed $600 billion in 2025, driven by the return to the Moon through NASA's Artemis program, a Space Force budget that has grown 124% in just two years, and the emergence of orbital data centers being developed by SpaceX, Google, and Blue Origin. Every one of these programs will generate enormous demand for the manufacturing, defense contracting, engineering, and supply chain infrastructure that supports them.
A region of prosperity.
The region has experienced one of the largest migrations of institutional capital in modern American history, operates the busiest freight airport in the United States, and is home to a mostly unknown network of aerospace education programs.
The industry is already here.
More than 150 aerospace and defense companies have a presence in South Florida. HEICO Corporation is headquartered in Hollywood. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing all maintain operations in the region. In 2025, AST SpaceMobile announced a satellite manufacturing facility in Homestead.
The Corridor
One corridor, end to end.
The South Florida Aerospace Council is not proposing a rival to the Space Coast. It is proposing its complement. The Space Coast is a launch corridor. But launch is only one stage in an aerospace value chain that stretches far upstream of the launchpad. The satellites must be manufactured. The propulsion systems must be built and maintained. The components must be sourced, financed, and delivered.
South Florida offers the capital markets, logistics infrastructure, corporate environment, and workforce to support exactly that kind of upstream activity. A coordinated partnership between the two regions would make Florida the most complete aerospace state in the country, a corridor stretching from the launchpads of Cape Canaveral to the capital and logistics hub of Miami with no gap in between. That is a strategic advantage no other state can replicate.
South Florida aerospace in focus
Independent reporting on the companies, contracts, and developments shaping it.
Governor Ron DeSantis Announces $600M Blue Origin Manufacturing Expansion, 500 High Wage Jobs
Congressman Carlos A. Gimenez Secures New F-35 Jets for Homestead Air Reserve Base
Middle East tensions could bring more defense work to Central Florida
Miami International Airport reports sixth year of cargo growth
Powering America's Busiest Spaceport State, Space Florida Announces 2026 Call for Projects
HEICO Corporation Completes EthosEnergy Accessories and Components Acquisition
Record number of Space Coast launches expected in 2026
Governor Ron DeSantis Announces $600M Blue Origin Manufacturing Expansion, 500 High Wage Jobs
Congressman Carlos A. Gimenez Secures New F-35 Jets for Homestead Air Reserve Base
Middle East tensions could bring more defense work to Central Florida
Miami International Airport reports sixth year of cargo growth
Powering America's Busiest Spaceport State, Space Florida Announces 2026 Call for Projects
HEICO Corporation Completes EthosEnergy Accessories and Components Acquisition
Record number of Space Coast launches expected in 2026
Governor Ron DeSantis Announces $600M Blue Origin Manufacturing Expansion, 500 High Wage Jobs
Congressman Carlos A. Gimenez Secures New F-35 Jets for Homestead Air Reserve Base
Middle East tensions could bring more defense work to Central Florida
Miami International Airport reports sixth year of cargo growth
Powering America's Busiest Spaceport State, Space Florida Announces 2026 Call for Projects
HEICO Corporation Completes EthosEnergy Accessories and Components Acquisition
Record number of Space Coast launches expected in 2026
Forming now
The Founding Cohort
The Council exists for those who believe the economic trajectory of a region reflects the ambitions its people are willing to organize around. Its strength will be measured by the breadth and seriousness of that collective effort.
You have a place at this table.