As early as June, Collins Aerospace may break ground on an eight-acre parcel in the recently completed Phase 1 of the spaceport. The plan includes a second eight-acre tract Collins will have the option to expand into.
Collins Aerospace will build a 116,000-square-foot facility that will include office space, manufacturing laboratory space and 10,000 square feet of accelerator space. The accelerator space will be subleased by Collins Aerospace to a third-party organization that will bring Houston's entrepreneurial, corporate and academic communities together to accelerate innovation and opportunities to tackle aerospace-related challenges, officials said.
The development will add 250 engineering and technician jobs to the area. Construction will take about two years to complete, officials said.
Collins Aerospace is a division of Raytheon Technologies, and Hamilton Sundstrand, the entity named in the proposed lease agreement, is a division of Collins Aerospace. The proposal will go before Houston City Council on May 19.
Houston Spaceport Phase 1, which began in June 2019 and was completed in December 2020, is about 153 acres of streets and other infrastructure built to house aerospace companies at the 640-acre spaceport.
In December, Houston officials announced Axiom would build a 430,000-square-foot facility in Phase 1. Axiom will build the first private space station at the site. Axiom's facility will break ground late this year and take two years to build, and it will bring 1,000 jobs to the area, officials said.
Additionally, officials in June will announce a third development at the spaceport. It will take up about 10 acres of Phase 1.
Venus Aerospace is relocating from California to the Clear Lake area and plans to eventually have a spaceport presence. Venus will develop space planes capable of flying at hyper- and supersonic speeds, delivering passengers to other continents in just a few hours.
The spaceport today includes the Houston Aerospace Support Center, a building that includes two tenants: San Jacinto College, which runs the Edge Center to train the next aerospace workforce, and Intuitive Machines, which is building a lunar lander that will fly to the moon by January 2022. Eventually the Edge Center will expand to another 12-acre site at Phase 1, according to site map plans.
Finally, officials are proposing to build Taxiway Lima, which will run adjacent to the spaceport and a nearby Ellington Airport runway. This will give spaceport-based aerospace companies convenient access to the runway.
