CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A new $30 million spacecraft processing center to be raised outside the gates of Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is expected to help Florida contend for business in the lucrative but fiercely competitive global satellite launch market, officials said Friday.

With long-term contracts from aerospace giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin in hand, Astrotech Space Operations -- a wholly owned subsidiary of Spacehab, Inc. -- broke ground Friday on two new buildings near existing company facilities in South Titusville, Florida.

Located just three miles from the gates of KSC, the buildings will be used to fuel and test satellites to be launched on next-generation Boeing Delta and Lockheed Martin Atlas rockets from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Station.

Astrotech Space Operations President George Baker said the new buildings would help Florida’s coastal spaceport compete with rival launch bases, such as the European Space Agency’s Kourou Space Center in French Guyana, South America.

"All of us are committed to making Florida the place for space, and Astrotech is particularly committed to helping attract more commercial and government launch business to the Cape Canaveral spaceport by providing state-of-the-art payload processing facilities," Baker said.

Astrotech’s existing satellite servicing center in Titusville became the world’s first commercially owned payload processing facility when it opened in 1984. Since then, some 100 satellites valued at $15 billion have been fueled and tested there before being launched from either KSC or the adjacent air station.

The company earlier this month signed long-term contracts to service satellites being readied for launches on Boeing Delta 2, Delta 3 and Delta 4 rockets as well as Lockheed Martin Atlas 2, Atlas 3 and Atlas 5 boosters.

Astrotech’s intent to build the new satellite processing facilities played a key role in landing the multimillion-dollar contracts.

Said Baker -- "Part of Astrotech’s commitment to each company was to expand our current payload processing facilities -- to add new and larger facilities to support the anticipated increase in launch rate and the increased size of the Delta 4 and Atlas 5 launch vehicle hardware."

Officials with Spaceport Florida Authority, the state’s space agency, expect the number of annual space launches from Cape Canaveral to jump from an average of about 35 now to more than 50 in the year 2005.

An industry trend toward larger, more powerful commercial communications satellites also is driving the need for bigger, more efficient spacecraft processing facilities. Satellites typically are encapsulated in rocket nosecones at payload processing facilities prior to delivery to their launch pads.

In business since 1981, Astrotech also owns payload processing facilities at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. In addition, it operates -- but does not own -- a payload processing facility for the Sea Launch consortium at Long Beach, Calif.

Parent company Spacehab is the first business firm to commercially develop, own and operate habitable space shuttle cargo bay modules that double as lab facilities and supply warehouses for astronauts living and working in space.