Space Florida and the director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center told the Florida Senate committee that the state must act to preserve its leadership in aerospace as private launch cadence and national mission demand accelerate.

Rob Long, president and CEO of Space Florida, cited statewide metrics — roughly $5.6 billion in private investment over the last 15 years, about 700 aerospace establishments and 223 active projects in the pipeline — and described the Spaceport Improvement Program as a tool that has historically leveraged state investment into private dollars. Long highlighted workforce programs including the Space Forward Academy (26 school districts participating, with MOUs in progress) and described efforts to accelerate deals and expand international innovation partnerships.

Janet Petro, director of Kennedy Space Center, framed her testimony as an urgent appeal. She highlighted KSC’s heavy commercial launch activity (KSC and Cape Canaveral had almost 160 missions on the manifest and had launched 98 missions to date) while noting that Kennedy receives a smaller share of NASA’s budget (Petro cited roughly $2,000,000,000 for Kennedy versus $5,900,000,000 for Johnson Space Center). Petro said other states (notably Texas and Alabama) have enacted structured state programs and appropriations to attract facilities, and she warned that without immediate, coordinated state-level action Florida risks losing economic benefits and leadership to competing states.

Petro described three priorities: deliver NASA missions (Artemis 2 targeted for early 2026), enhance KSC infrastructure to support increased commercial cadence and strengthen the local workforce through university partnerships (she identified a memorandum of understanding for the Florida Space Research Consortium with multiple state universities). She said NASA’s budget prioritizes its missions and centers on a program basis, so state investment and alignment with federal partners are needed to address common-use infrastructure gaps.

During questioning, Petro and members discussed federal restrictions that limit direct commercial investment in common-use federal infrastructure because such contributions could be treated as improper appropriations; she said state-level tools and careful statutory language may create workarounds and that the legislature could consider mechanisms to encourage private investment while preserving federal procurement and accounting rules.

What this means: State officials and the KSC director portrayed the situation as competitive and time-sensitive. They requested legislative attention to tools and partnerships that would preserve Florida’s infrastructure and attract programmatic investment.

Next steps: The committee received the briefings and discussed possible legislative and advisory approaches; Senator Burgess moved to adjourn and the meeting concluded.