Vandenberg — the nation’s western space launch range since 1957 and fast-growing commercial launch site — sits in the center of the region, with vendors, contractors and commercial partners spread throughout the Central Coast.

The base is expanding its roster of commercial partners, with new rockets from companies like Firefly, Astra and Relativity coming online and a commercial tech park in the works.

Umbra, which holds a $950 million federal contract for its ultra-high-resolution radar microsatellites, is one of the latest aerospace innovators to come out of Santa Barbara, where Jack Northrup and the Lockheed brothers got their start. Dubbed “Infrared Valley” for its rich history of pioneering the sensing equipment crucial to space and aerospace, the area still hosts the nation’s major defense contractors as well as up-and-comers like Umbra.

ES Aero is just one of the SLO-grown companies with impressive NASA contracts, theirs for developing the all-electric X-57 Maxwell plane. Among the others: Next Intent‘s work on every Mars Rover for the last two decades, Stellar Exploration’s thrusters powering a moon mission, Maverick Space Systems's satellite launch systems and Mantis Composites’s highly engineered 3D-printed aerospace components.

With a rich aerospace legacy that includes co-developing the CubeSat mini-satellite, now used worldwide, Cal Poly continues to support NASA moon and Mars missions, partner with the Air Force Research Lab and churn out astronauts. The university boasts robust industry partnerships and specialized equipment labs that provide resources, a pipeline of sought-after talent and innovation to fuel the industry.

Continuing Cal Poly’s legacy in developing the CubeSat standard and pioneering frequent and affordable access to space, the independent CubeSat Lab has supported 175 missions, developed and launched 12 CubeSats in house, and conducted $25 million in sponsored projects. It also hosts a three-day annual conference that draws more than 500 industry professionals, small satellite developers and students.

With its own trio of astronaut alumni — including one featured in an upcoming biopic starring Michael Peña — and a world-renowned science program, UCSB has $17 million in active NASA-sponsored research projects. One group of researchers is working on a series of experiments to be conducted aboard the International Space Station, while others carry out cutting-edge research in observational and theoretical astrophysics. 

Cal Poly’s successful HotHouse incubator has debuted the Launch Pad, an aerospace-focused offshoot in Grover Beach, offering a range of services to support and scale space and aeronautics startups. It hosts the first US presence of Dcubed, a German company that develops mass-customizable, export restriction-free actuators and deployable structures that make advanced small satellite and CubeSat missions feasible.

Cuesta College, in partnership with ACI Jet (a fixed-based operator recently awarded Airport Business Project of the Year), has launched an aviation maintenance technical training program to meet the rapidly rising demand for aerospace technicians. The 18-month certificate program prepares students for an FAA license with broad application for careers in avionics, drones and beyond.

Plans to create a horizontal launch spaceport at the Paso Robles airport are moving forward with Cal Poly partnership and several letters of intent from spaceplane companies. It would be one of only about a dozen across the country and second in California, joining one in the Mojave desert. Plans call for the area around the airport to be developed as a technology corridor focused on the space industry.

Camp Roberts, on the northern edge of SLO County, hosts the Naval Postgraduate School’s Joint Interagency Field Experimentation program (JIFX), where industry, academia and military converge to collaborate on testing and demonstrating rapidly developing technologies including autonomous drones, geospatial intelligence and cybersecurity in austere field conditions — a real-world sandbox for fast-emerging technologies.