Blue Origin is launching into a massive expansion of its Florida footprint, filing plans for a nearly 1-million-square-foot manufacturing campus.
The expansion, codenamed “Project Horizon,” involves the construction of an 800,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on 31 acres within Merritt Island’s Exploration Park.
According to permit application documents filed Feb. 24, the site sits directly south of Blue Origin’s existing “South Campus” at 8082 Space Commerce Way.
The project is situated on federally owned land under a 50-year renewable lease with NASA. The land is managed by Space Florida, which is subleasing the property to Blue Origin.
While permit documents do not explicitly state what will be built inside the 800,000-square-foot structure, November filings for the “Deep South Campus” indicate the facilities will provide for the “manufacture and provisioning of commercial space launch vehicles.”
The Merritt Island expansion follows a significant real estate acquisition in nearby Cocoa. On Feb. 17, Blue Origin Manufacturing LLC paid $11.5 million for a 20-acre site at 850 Cidco Road.
The property, located less than 15 miles from the Merritt Island campus, was previously used by SpaceX for Starship-related activities. The site includes:
- A 110-foot-tall, 10,000-square-foot high bay facility.
- More than 48,000 square feet of warehouse space.
- Approximately 4,100 square feet of office space.
Look what rolled in this morning! The payload fairing for New Glenn's third launch just arrived at the Integration Facility at LC-36 with @AST_SpaceMobile's BlueBird satellite safely secured inside. pic.twitter.com/YC5o3L66Jt
— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) February 21, 2026
The surge in infrastructure comes as Blue Origin ramps up its launch schedule. On Jan. 22, the company announced the New Glenn-3 (NG-3) mission, which is slated to carry AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellite into low Earth orbit.
Earlier design documents from late 2025 suggest the “Deep South” campus could eventually include multiple structures, including a “Building AA” and “Building BB,” totaling over 1 million square feet of industrial space. The Feb. 27 applications noted that Project Horizon will “build off” those earlier permits with the finalized design.
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