07-05-2025
FSU PC, Astro America secure $98 million for Project 'inSPIRE' launch
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – Project Inspire is starting to take shape. Triumph Gulf Coast granted Florida State University $98 million last year to launch Project InSPIRE.
It's a joint effort between FSU, Northwest Florida Beaches International, and a company called Astro America.
Plans call for two facilities totaling about 100,000 square feet, and machinery and hardware to equip the facilities.
Astro America will build one of the facilities, a 50,000 square foot aeronautical aviation center at Northwest Florida Beaches International.
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Astro America has already signed a lease with a local machine shop called Maritech for office space and is hiring local employees. The work has already started.
'So, we have a small amount of space there. We're already bringing equipment in so that we can start getting employees around the panhandle familiar with that equipment, how to use it and so we're already off the ground running, even though we don't have our building yet, you know, but in the meantime, we're already starting this work,' Community Relationships and Partnership Engagement Director Grey Dodge said.
The project will create engineering opportunities for FSU students. There has been no word yet as to when construction on the new facility will begin.
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