Boeing [BA] on Wednesday said this year it will move the headquarters of its Space and Lunch division near Washington, D.C., to Florida’s Space Coast to be closer to key customers and its own operating personnel, although the company’s space operations in other states will remain.
Boeing currently isn’t releasing the number of jobs that are being moved, but a spokesman for the division told Defense Daily the numbers will be small. The move to Titusville, Fla., will begin later this summer and be completed by year-end, he said.
Florida’s Space Coast includes NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Patrick Air Force Base. In addition to being closer to customers, Boeing highlighted that a number of its programs are moving to, or are already centered in, the area.
“Looking to the future, this storied Florida space community will be the center of gravity for Boeing’s space programs as we continue to build our company’s leadership beyond gravity,” Leanne Caret, president and CEO of Boeing’s Defense, Space & Security segment, said in a statement.
Jim Chilton, who leads the Space and Launch division, said in a statement that “Expanding our Boeing presence on the Space Coast brings tremendous value for our commercial and government space programs through focused leadership, strategic investment, customer proximity and additional contributions to the vitality of the region.”
Chilton, members of his executive team and support staff will move from the current Arlington, Va., headquarters and join current employees already in Titusville.
Among its current and upcoming work in Florida, Boeing highlighted its X-37B uncrewed reusable space vehicle for the Air Force, an expected pickup in activity on satellite programs with local payload processing and launches, mission integration and launch system operations with Air Force partners in the area, upcoming flight-tests and operational missions of the CST-100 Starliner commercial spacecraft for Space Station missions, work on NASA’s Space Launch System for moon orbit and landing missions and eventually Mars, launch work its United Launch Alliance joint venture with Lockheed Martin [LMT], and advanced space-related studies working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The headquarters move doesn’t affect Boeing’s space work at existing locations in Alabama, California, Colorado, Texas and Louisiana.