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

What you need to know: Governor Gavin Newsom visited Long Beach, a hub for aerospace and space technology companies that showcase California's leadership in innovation and advanced manufacturing. California is home to one-third of the nation's space technology companies and benefits from a world-class aerospace ecosystem, with top talent, research institutions, manufacturing capacity, and infrastructure across Southern California.

LONG BEACH - Recently, Governor Gavin Newsom visited Long Beach - also known as "Space Beach" - a dynamic hub for the aerospace industry that has a deep legacy in the field. Given its prime location near major ports, military bases, and top engineering schools, Long Beach continues to serve as a leading launchpad for science and discovery.

Downloadable photos and videos can be viewed here.

While in Space Beach, Governor Newsom and Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson toured Vast, a fast-rising commercial space company headquartered in the Golden State. Vast, founded in 2021, is quickly becoming a major player in the emerging private space industry. The company focuses on building the next generation of commercial space stations and long-duration human habitation infrastructure in low Earth orbit, setting itself apart from major space companies that launch rockets. Vast is strategically located in Southern California, tapping into the region's aerospace talent base, infrastructure, port access, and advanced manufacturing ecosystem.

The future happens here first in the Golden State and companies like Vast are leading the way in the commercial space industry. California's unparalleled innovation ecosystem and skilled workforce is fueling the Golden Age of science and discovery for the next generation of explorers.

Governor Gavin Newsom

The Golden State's innovation ecosystem fuels the future

With diverse aerospace and technology companies, world-class research institutions, and a skilled workforce, the Golden State is driving innovation in advanced technologies.

• California, which is home to one-third of the nation's space technology companies, has more aerospace engineers and defense personnel than any other state.

• California ranks #1 in corporate aerospace R&D spending, and #1 in space-technology venture capital. Together, these reflect the nation's highest concentration of aerospace talent, with California alone accounting for roughly 40% of all U.S. space-technology patents.

• California's higher education engine-California Community Colleges (CCC), California State University (CSU), and the University of California (UC)-forms the nation's most productive public pipeline for aerospace talent. Alongside private institutions such as Stanford, USC, and Caltech, this engine helps California produce more aerospace engineers than anywhere in the U.S.

• The state is also home to all 5 traditional defense prime contractors: Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, General Dynamics, and Raytheon.

• More than 500 companies and 16,000 workers in the state contributed to NASA's Artemis II - the United States' first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years.

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

• Last August, the state awarded $16.95 million to two projects designed to provide ecosystem support and uplift the aerospace & defense sector's infrastructure and workforce in the Central Coast.

CalCompetes Tax Credit Program

• In May of this year, the following aerospace and defense companies received awards:

  • Mach Industries, resulting in a $32.5 million investment to expand its defense technology manufacturing and research & development in Huntington Beach, Los Angeles and San Francisco, creating 1,057 jobs.

  • Apex Space, resulting in a $165.5 million investment to expand its satellite manufacturing presence in Los Angeles and the broader Southern California region, creating 483 jobs.

  • Voyager Technologies, resulting in a $75 million investment to expand its Long Beach aerospace component manufacturing facility, creating 152 jobs.

  • Lanteris Space, resulting in a $16 million investment and the creation of 70 jobs to expand its satellite manufacturing facility in San Jose.

• 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.