US 183 N Space Corridor

Firefly Aerospace · Cedar Park to Briggs · Williamson County

US 183 carries North Austin's chip-design and robotics offices into Cedar Park, Leander and Burnet County. Firefly Aerospace builds in Cedar Park and tests at Briggs, and Cedar Park is planning a spaceport campus around it.

  • Chips
  • Aerospace and defense
  • Tesla, EV and robotics
  • Energy
Map of US 183 from North Austin through Cedar Park and Leander to Briggs, with SH 29 to Georgetown and the main aerospace and tech sites Firefly HQ Firefly Briggs test site CTSDC spaceport campus (site TBD) Hyliion Apple Austin Apptronik US 183 SH 29 I-35 FIREFLY HQ FIREFLY BRIGGS TEST SITE CTSDC SPACEPORT CAMPUS (SITE TBD) HYLIION APPLE AUSTIN APPTRONIK AUSTIN (DOMAIN) CEDAR PARK LEANDER LIBERTY HILL GEORGETOWN ROUND ROCK BRIGGS LOCATIONS APPROXIMATE
Anchor
Firefly Aerospace
Span
Domain to Briggs
Counties
Travis, Williamson, Burnet
Planned
CTSDC campus
Status
Operating, growing

Overview

Firefly Holds Both Ends of the Cedar Park-Briggs Stretch

US 183 runs north from the Domain in North Austin through Cedar Park and Leander to Seward Junction at SH 29, then on to Briggs in Burnet County. Firefly Aerospace has its headquarters and spacecraft production in Cedar Park and its engine and stage test site at Briggs. SH 29 runs east from Seward Junction to Georgetown and I-35.

Firefly listed on Nasdaq in August 2025. Its Blue Ghost lander touched down on the Moon in March 2025, the first commercial lunar landing to complete its mission. An Alpha booster exploded during acceptance testing at Briggs in late September 2025; Alpha Flight 7 flew on March 11, 2026, and the first Alpha Block 2 launch slipped to the fourth quarter of 2026. In September 2026 Firefly opened a Cedar Park cleanroom four times the size of its old one, and Cedar Park approved a $1M grant in October 2025 for a 44,000-square-foot headquarters on Scottsdale Drive with up to 300 new jobs by 2027.

Alpha competes for small-satellite launches with Chinese commercial launchers Galactic Energy (Ceres-1) and LandSpace (Zhuque-2), both flying from the Jiuquan launch center.

Profile
HighwayUS 183 and the 183A toll road
SpanDomain (Austin) to Briggs (Burnet County)
CountiesTravis, Williamson, Burnet
Primary anchorFirefly Aerospace (Nasdaq: FLY)
Test siteFirefly ranch at Briggs
Planned campusCentral Texas Spaceport and Defense Innovation Campus, Cedar Park
TransitCapital Metro Red Line ends at Leander
Cross routesSH 45, RM 620, RM 1431, SH 29

Anchors

Aerospace in Cedar Park, Chips and Robots at the Domain End

Main operators along US 183 N
OperatorLocationSectorStatus
Firefly AerospaceCedar Park HQ; Briggs test siteLaunch vehicles, lunar landers, spacecraftAlpha Block 2 debut due Q4 2026
AppleParmer Lane and Riata campuses, North AustinChip design, operationsOperating
ApptronikStonehollow Drive near the DomainApollo humanoid robot$935M+ Series A closed Feb 2026
HyliionCedar ParkKARNO fuel-flexible linear generatorPre-commercial
AeonCedar ParkMissiles and guidance softwareCedar Park incentive deal
Machine Sciences, Elite Metal FinishingCedar ParkAerospace parts and finishingCedar Park incentive deals
Frontera SpaceCedar ParkSpaceplanes, founded by Firefly founder Tom MarkusicStartup

Growth

Cedar Park Plans a Spaceport Campus; Blue Origin and CesiumAstro Went Elsewhere

Cedar Park and Williamson County formed the Central Texas Spaceport Development Corporation (CTSDC) in 2025, with a seven-member board named by county commissioners. Its planned campus totals about 115,000 square feet in four buildings at $78M-$108M: a 20,000-square-foot SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility) for defense contractors, a 40,000-square-foot environmental test center, a third phase of about 35,000 square feet, and a 20,000-square-foot education and incubator hub. The UT Austin Cockrell School of Engineering is a partner. Land, financing and permits are still open, and construction could start as early as the first quarter of 2027.

Blue Origin chose Hutto Crossing on October 8, 2026 for a $555M, 1.3-million-square-foot satellite manufacturing campus with more than 2,000 jobs and an $18.2M Texas Enterprise Fund grant. Hutto sits on the US 79 corridor, not US 183.

CesiumAstro, the phased-array satellite communications maker, is moving its headquarters and manufacturing to Bee Cave on SH 71, with more than $500M in capital investment, about 500 jobs and a $10M SEARF (Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund) grant.

Connections

SH 29, I-35 and US 79 Tie US 183 to Round Rock, Taylor and Waco

SH 29 links Seward Junction to Georgetown and I-35, where the Austin-Waco corridor runs north to Fort Hood and SpaceX McGregor. SH 45 and RM 620 connect Cedar Park to Round Rock and Dell.

East of I-35, the US 79 corridor carries Samsung Taylor and Blue Origin Hutto, and the SH 130 corridor carries Tesla Giga Texas. The metro-wide aerospace picture, including Firefly, CTSDC and Blue Origin, is on the Austin aerospace and space corridor page.

Record

Dataset Record

Sources
Community Impact, Hoodline, Spaceflight Now, Firefly Aerospace, Area Development, Lawyer Monthly, Built In Austin, Apptronik, City of Cedar Park, Texas Governor's Office
Last verified
October 2026