The military has awarded a Florida company a $250 million contract to build a satellite processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base amid a boost in the number of spacecraft being placed in orbit from the West Coast site.

The Department of Air Force announced that the contract had been awarded to All Points Logistics LLC, based in Merritt Island, Florida. The selection of All Points occurred during a competitive acquisition process involving four offers, the Defense Department announced.

“The current and future operating environments rely on a launch enterprise that can scale the infrastructure and processes necessary for responsive and reliable launch capabilities,” said U.S. Space Force Col. Dan Highlander, director for the Space Access office, which is responsible for acquisition and located at Los Angeles Air Force Base.

“These awards are an avenue to increase payload processing capacity and reflect the continued Space Access commitment to partnership opportunities that ensure mutually beneficial outcomes for both national security and commercial launch requirements,” Highlander added.

After arriving at Vandenberg, satellites undergo processing and integration before being encapsulated in the rocket’s payload fairing, or nose cone, and driven to the launch pad for the ride to orbit. That prep work requires a clean room facility minus dust, dirt and moisture that can contaminate the sensitive technology.

The new facility will include multiple high- and low-bay processing areas and dual encapsulation bays for crews to safety secure craft before the trip to space.

The site also will boast a blast-rated hazardous processing capability, secure mission areas, storage, and advanced communications and monitoring systems.

“This proposed facility is designed to give the Space Force a faster, more flexible path to increased spacecraft processing capacity on the West Coast,” said Phil Monkress, CEO of All Points Logistics. “By combining private capital with targeted government investment, All Points will deliver a scalable Infrastructure-as-a-Service capability that strengthens ensured access to space, improves mission throughout and reduces long-term sustainment burdens for the government.”

The All Points project is envisioned for Vandenberg’s Mission Development Zone, which base officials identified in a 2021 master plan as its property near West Ocean Avenue, but outside security gates.

The features of the new facility will support work flows for multiple missions while accommodating various spacecraft classes and launch service providers.

Amid complaints about limited payload processing sites at Vandenberg as the number of launches increase, base leaders have eyed ways to reduce operational chokepoints and improve schedule confidence for missions blasting off from Vandenberg.

The military said the project is structured as a public-private partnership, and is expected to increase commercial capacity for space vehicle processing at Vandenberg by 2029.

“The commercial ownership and operation model frees the government from relying on scarce military construction funding while adding competition and dissimilar redundancy to the nation’s space launch industrial base,” said Kevin Brown, senior vice president at the Space Prep division of All Points.

The new facility will augment Space Prep’s existing Vandenberg’s operations at Space Launch Complex-2.

The need for additional payload processing facilities comes as multiple missions with several small satellites filled the manifest for Defense Department and other government agencies along with commercial satellite firms and international customers.

With rockets becoming more routine and reusable, the aerospace industry has evolved to see dozens of smaller satellites delivered in several launches a year. That is instead of the past practice involving occasional missions to place behemoth, complex and costly spacecraft in orbit infrequently.

The Department of Air Force previously issued two other similar awards in 2025, one of which went to Astrotech Space Operations at Vandenberg for a $77.5 million facility. 

The second was awarded for $78.25 million to Blue Origin for a project at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.