President Trump comes to Kennedy Space Center to tout US reentry into lucrative air expo business

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel on Nov 6, 2026

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — President Donald Trump flew into Kennedy Space Center on Friday night to join aerospace industry leaders and tout newly announced plans to hold an annual and lucrative expo to rival the likes of those held in Paris and England.

“Make America great again, that’s what we do. Our calling is to explore, our purpose is to build, and our aim is always to win. We want to win,” Trump said.

He took the stage at the Up.Summit, which is a smaller technology demonstration event part of NASA’s larger Max Power air show weekend.

But on Thursday and Friday, about 400 invitation-only investors and business leaders had been trading ideas as part of the summit, and that’s for whom Trump was speaking.

Announced Friday was news that KSC will be home to an annual aerospace trade show that in time is hoped to bring 500,000 people to the Space Coast. It will be called Capeweek, with the first event slated for March 2028.

It’s aiming to be as big as the Paris Air Show and the Farnborough International Airshow in England, both of which draw global aerospace leaders to make deals and show off their goods.

“Next year, you’ll see an even bigger building, and over the next few years, you’ll see the biggest air show anywhere in the world,” he said. “That’ll take place very quickly, I’d say two years. And that includes commercial aircraft of all types. You’ll have all of the big commercial flights and companies, Boeing, everybody’s going to be here.”

It was his first public speaking event since his Republican Party took a beating during Tuesday’s midterm elections, although the country’s blue wave of Democrat wins was not as prevalent in Florida. Trump had ahead of the election appeared at a rally in Daytona Beach to try and drive GOP support in the state.

Before Trump arrived, Florida Gov.-elect Byron Donalds spoke to the audience pitching Florida as the place to do business.

“We are going to continue making all the launches right here in Cape Canaveral, but with it we want to create a hub for innovation, for high paying jobs, for capital deployment, and for the next leg of Florida’s already impressive and dominant economic score,” he said.

He declared his plan is to reduce permitting and planning roadblocks across all parts of the state government.

“We don’t want it to take two years to put a shovel in the ground,” he said. “If you have a company that you believe can provide necessary tools and/or core parts of the space mission or any mission for that matter, we want you to develop it, we want you to build it, we want you to manufacture it and we want you to deploy it here.”

He also made his pitch to bring the recently announced United States Space Academy to Florida.

Donalds took the opportunity for a “shameless plug” asking, “Where better to do it than right here in the Space Coast where all the rockets, where all the launches are happening?”

“We think we have the necessary infrastructure, we have the commitment, we have the resources,” he said.

For Saturday and Sunday’s Up.Summit public days, ticket holders will get “to explore the latest innovations in transportation. From autonomous vehicles to cutting-edge drones and space exploration technologies, come and see what the future holds.”

It’s one of three hubs as part of the Max Power weekend. The main event is the Air Dot Show featuring the Air Force Thunderbirds on both Saturday and Sunday as well as appearances by NASA astronauts, display of NASA aircraft and even NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman taking part in NASA’s own aerobatic performance team.

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex also has events tied to the Max Power theme including a daily parade with astronauts in Corvettes and a marching band.

Tickets are limited for the air show, and the Up.Summit ticket sales close today. Both the air show and Up.Summit display area will be centered on the former space shuttle landing facility.

Tickets to get into KSC Visitor Complex are still available, and it will be about 5 miles south of where the air show will be performing.

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