A new launch pad is now open at the Kennedy Space Center, and NASA hopes it will attract new businesses and jobs to Brevard County.

Launch Pad 39C will be used by a smaller class of rockets. It officially opened Friday, July 17. The new mini-pad is located in the southeast area of pad 39B, which is where Orion and the Space Launch System rocket will launch in the coming years.

SpaceX is currently leasing pad 39A for its launches. NASA officials said the $900,000 smaller 39C pad will be useful for companies that are interested in flying small satellites to space.

NASA said there is a big demand for a mini-launch pad with about a dozen companies touring the pad. The space company said a few of them are already interested in formalizing an agreement to use it.

"The big backlog right now is university research, CubeSats, small metric class type payloads, there's a backlog developing and they're really dying to get these off the ground," said Scott Colloredo, of Kennedy Space Center Planning & Development.

The overall goal is to transform the Kennedy Space Center into a multiuser spaceport.

NASA hopes commercial companies will bring new activity to the space center — which hasn't seen a launch since the last space shuttle four years ago.

The space agency also hopes the draw of launching at the famed Kennedy Space Center will create more jobs. Thousands of people lost their jobs when the shuttle was retired.

Launch Complex 39 has been the site of all Apollo missions to the moon, as well as the space shuttle launches. NASA said rockets could start launching from there in late 2016 or 2017.