Cedar Park and Williamson County are partnering to launch the Central Texas Spaceport Development Corporation, a non-profit public entity dedicated to building infrastructure for spacecraft, rockets and satellites.
Under Texas law, Spaceport Development Corporations may be formed as non-profits so they can apply for specialized state and federal grants, manage assets outside regular city or county budgets and work more flexibly with private aerospace firms. To form a spaceport development non-profit, a local government needs only to pass a resolution or order authorizing it, approve by-laws and file a certificate of formation with the Texas Secretary of State.
Creating the non-profit structure also allows for a dedicated seven-member board of directors to focus exclusively on spaceport growth and industry partnerships separate from municipal or county affairs. The Cedar Park City Council approved the move on Aug. 7, about five months after the Williamson County Commissioners Court took the same step.
Cedar Park, already home to Firefly Aerospace, became the first U.S. city to host a private company that successfully landed on the Moon in March of this year. Just last month, Firefly received a $176.7 million NASA contract for a 2029 lunar mission.
Local leaders say the new corporation could attract more aerospace companies, create high-paying jobs and position the Austin metropolitan area as a major space industry hub.
Once Cedar Park and Williamson County have completed the non-profit formation process, they will join five other such organizations in the state, including ones in Midland and Brownsville. The partnership is expected to draw infrastructure investment, spur economic development and solidify Central Texas’s place in the rapidly growing commercial space sector.
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