Other international players, such as Space Forge in the U.K. and Bellatrix Aerospace in India, are expanding U.S. presence to leverage American launch infrastructure and demand.

Christopher Alan Homes has promoted Mike Jaffe to operations president for its new Space Coast division as it expands into the Palm Bay area.

Argotec opened its first U.S.-based satellite production facility in Melbourne, Florida, as part of a $25 million investment to support high-volume production and rapid assembly of up to 10 HEO satellites simultaneously, with potential to produce one HAWK PLUS platform per month.

The Florida facility features modular clean rooms and parallel integration lines, with U.S. staff expected to triple in size over the next two years.

Marifer Sagastume joined Groundswell Startups in Melbourne as managing director of community to foster start-up development, bringing a background in biomedical engineering and STEM education.

The Florida facility near Kennedy Space Center is designed to meet rising demand from American space programs, strengthening U.S. production capacity.

Argotec, an Italian space company, brings experience from past missions and is expanding its U.S. operations to support defense, commercial, and scientific programs.

The Hawk Plus platform is modular, enabling rapid sensor and propulsion substitutions and reducing the time from contract award to delivery from years to months, with production planned in both Europe and the United States.

U.S. workload is driven by NASA and Defense initiatives, including Artemis 2, and potential space-based infrastructure needs like communications and observation capabilities.

Argotec has previously supported missions such as the DART imagery and the Artemis I ride-along ArgoMoon, and is pursuing an Earth-observation constellation for solar storms and space weather.

Officials highlighted the facility as strengthening national security, commercial capabilities, and Florida’s role in the space industry.

Argotec’s U.S. operations are already supporting seven HEO satellites for the IRIDE Earth-observation constellation and the MiniCOR mission approaching Critical Design Review in April 2026.