Governor Newsom visits Space Beach and highlights California’s aerospace dominance

Investments into the aerospace & defense sector

Within Governor Newsom’s California Jobs First Economic Blueprint, the first statewide economic development strategy in more than 20 years, aerospace & defense is an “accelerate” sector – one where additional investments from the public and private sectors have the capacity to “bend the curve” to catalyze sustained growth, contributing an estimated $35 billion annually to California’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Accordingly, the state has made a number of targeted investments into the sector over the past year, including:

Regional Investment Initiative

CalCompetes Tax Credit Program

• Last June, A.S. Aerospace received an award, resulting in a $19 million investment to continue manufacturing precision aerospace hardware in Palmdale and Santa Clarita.

• Last November, Hadrian Automation, Inc. was a beneficiary, creating 650 jobs and investing $52 million in Torrance and Northern California to expand its aerospace component manufacturing. True Anomaly also received an award to expand its satellite manufacturing facilities in Long Beach, creating 400 jobs along with a $12.7 million investment.

NASA Centers in California

In the Golden State, NASA has three main centers and facilities focused on research, flight, and robotic exploration that all contribute to the state’s economic competitiveness, create high-paying jobs, and inspire the next generation of explorers. 

• Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley has led NASA in conducting world-class research and development in aeronautics, technology, and science since 1939. 

• Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in Edwards is NASA’s primary center for high-risk, atmospheric flight research and test projects. 

• Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena leads in robotic space exploration, sending rovers to Mars, probes to the farthest bounds of the solar system, and satellites to advance understanding of our planet. JPL manages the Deep Space Network which is an international array of giant radio antennas, as well as a major center for quantum research at the Quantum Space Innovation Center (QSIC).

Generations of aerospace & defense leadership

California’s role in powering human spaceflight stretches back decades. The Saturn V rocket that carried Apollo astronauts to the moon was built almost entirely in California and the original Apollo spacecraft itself was manufactured across the state. The Space Shuttle fleet was assembled in Palmdale, the first U.S. space station, Skylab, was built in Huntington Beach, and the RS-25 engine – originally developed for the Shuttle and now powering the Space Launch System for Artemis II – has been designed and manufactured in the San Fernando Valley since the 1970s.

As of late 2024, California is the top state in the country for:

• NASA spending: NASA procurement spending at $5.8 billion, accounting for 25% of NASA’s total procurement nationwide and resulting in $18.6 billion in economic output for California.

• NASA-supported R&D: California’s share of NASA procurement in the R & D services sector is 67%, representing 19% of NASA-supported jobs in the state.

• NASA Employment Impact: Each NASA job in California supports an additional 35.7 jobs across the state, resulting in a total employment impact of 66,208 jobs.