太空公司为何重注得州

• For most of space flight history NASA and government, or nation states, were really the biggest players in charge. That has recently shifted. - This was a frontier we really believed, for a long time, it was only a place for governments to build and innovate. - What we're seeing is a democratized space sector with a lot of smaller players and a lot of larger commercial players as well. - With the global space economy currently valued at over $650 billion, one American state in particular is betting big on this rapidly growing sector. - Governor Abbott coming to you from the great state of Texas.

Texas is a really good snapshot of the new direction that the space industry is taking. - There's a huge space community that's just embedded in Texas. - From a NASA standpoint, because of that competition, they're lowering the overall costs. That allows us to be able to do more. - 3, 2, 1, and lift off. - This is where we do the majority of all of our rocket testing, engine testing, component level testing, 200 acres of a factory floor and engine test, hand machine shop. - Firefly Aerospace is one of many commercial space companies that has set up in Texas.

It's valued in the billions of dollars, thanks to a string of extraordinary technical achievements in recent years. In March 2025, it became the first commercial space company to land upright on the Moon. - It was a 45 day transit from Earth to the Moon, and we had 10 NASA payloads on board doing all kinds of scientific experiments that I think really took us to the next level. - Firefly has secured multiple contracts with NASA worth hundreds of millions of dollars and has recently expanded its manufacturing and rocket testing facilities just outside of Austin.

Making sure that we keep all of this manufacturing in-house and in Texas is one of the key areas that allows us to be really scalable and kind of dominant in this industry. - So why has Texas become a hotbed for companies like Firefly? - Texas has a very long history with space flight. Everyone knows, you know, Houston, the Eagle has landed, and the Johnson Space Center, which is home to mission control. - This is Houston, say again, please. - Houston we've had a problem. - Houston was such a central location for space flight and so a lot of engineers that worked out of Johnson Space Center would go on to create their own companies, and a natural place for them to go would be right next door.

The biggest tenant in Texas is SpaceX, so they have set up shop with their Starbase facility on the southern tip of Texas. One of the reasons is that when it comes to launching rockets, you want to be as close to the equator as possible in order to get an extra boost to get into orbit. Another big tenant is Blue Origin. That company set up its launch facility in west Texas outside of Van Horn and then you also have a big cluster of companies in Houston, the home of NASA's Johnson Space Center and so various alums of NASA have set up shop just nearby, so you have Axiom Space, you have Intuitive Machines and then in central Texas Firefly Aerospace has its rocket facility and development center.

Aside from being in close orbit to NASA Texas offers some other critical advantages. We have a cluster of businesses that have a certain synergy. It's interesting that the oil and gas industry on the surface is very different from space, but if you start to look at a lot of the capabilities, whether it's heavy machinery, metal fabrication, telemetry, a lot of those same capabilities are used for offshore exploration and drilling in harsh environments.

They also focus on renewable energy and low carbon technologies and these are also very important for the space industry, you know, we certainly depend upon solar panels to power our satellites, for instance. - One of the reasons that Firefly Aerospace originally came to central Texas was for land, needing a lot of open space to test its rocket engines. Also Texas loves to pride itself on being light on regulation and very business friendly. - It's one of the reasons SpaceX relocated its headquarters to the "Lone Star State" in 2024.

Since then, it's rapidly expanded its footprint with giant solar and chip-making factories in its plans for the future too. Originating in California and often launching from Florida, both competing states in the world of space, it was significant that when Elon Musk announced the biggest IPO the world has ever seen, the bell rang from the new NASDAQ in Texas. Even as its hyped share price starts to come back down to earth.

SpaceX's impact on Texas is undeniable based on the sheer number of companies that stand to benefit from its success. But the company's presence in Texas isn't necessarily in the interest of Texans or the environment. - This morning environmental concerns in the aftermath of the SpaceX explosion. - SpaceX has gotten a lot of attention for its presence in Boca Chica, which is where the company set up shop to launch its Starship rocket.

There are endangered species who live in the area of that beach and the mudflats that surround it. SpaceX has essentially started building up around that area and now it looks completely unrecognizable to what it looked like before. - Despite pushback from some Texans the state is doubling down on its commitment to support the industry, including companies like SpaceX, with taxpayer dollars. - Those who reach for the stars do so from the "Lone Star State." - In 2023, the Texas legislature passed a bill to create the Texas Space Commission.

What we wanted to do is make it well known that those companies who had already decided to be set up here in Texas, that they didn't leave and that they are also helped to expand their existing footprint. - Last year, the Texas Space Commission gave out $150 million in grants to support space business in the state. It's due to double that by the end of this year. While it's not the only state catering to the space economy, the creation of entities like the Texas Space Commission with its eagerness to woo industry, marks a crucial shift in the way space exploration in the US is being conducted and that has a lot to do with the changing role of NASA. - A recent report showed that last year there was about $55 billion of investment in the space industry, and you compare that to say, NASA's annual budget, which has hovered around roughly $24 billion annually for the last few decades now.

The way NASA used to do business throughout most of its history is that if it needed a rocket, or a spacecraft, it would go to its contractors and say, "Hey, you know, we need this vehicle. We'll cover all the costs, but we are gonna oversee the design and the development with you, and then we're gonna own that vehicle when it's complete." Now the agency is transitioning to a new way of business where it's less of an overseer and more of a customer.

That being said, though, NASA is still a major player when it comes to leading the direction of where the space industry is headed. - That's especially true in Texas where the Johnson Space Center, and its 11,000 employees, are integral to arguably the most significant space program yet. We're moving into an era that we're calling "Artemis." - And lift off! The crew of Artemis II now bound for the moon. Humanity's next great voyage begins. - We're in an era where its access is open.

It went from being all government with Apollo, with the Shuttle and so commercial industry is a part now of Artemis because they have responsibility for building the landers. And so as we're building out Artemis, as we're building out this moon base, we will have responsibility for the overall integration of all of those things. - Back in 2018 NASA started the "Commercial Lunar Payload Services" program, CLPS, which is managed out of Houston.

By outsourcing to companies, NASA aims to reduce the cost of lunar exploration and encourage innovation and growth. - The companies got a number of things. They go

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