{"id":17867,"date":"2019-11-29T19:36:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T11:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origins-expansion-plans-rush-ahead-at-its-seattle-area-hq-and-in-los-angeles\/"},"modified":"2019-11-29T19:36:50","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T11:36:50","slug":"blue-origins-expansion-plans-rush-ahead-at-its-seattle-area-hq-and-in-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origins-expansion-plans-rush-ahead-at-its-seattle-area-hq-and-in-los-angeles\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin\u2019s expansion plans rush ahead at its Seattle-area HQ \u2014 and in Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A monolith adorned with Blue Origin\u2019s feather logo stands at the construction site for a 400,000-square-foot office and warehouse-style facility in Kent, Wash. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

KENT, Wash. \u2014 Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture is rapidly expanding on several fronts, ranging from its headquarters facility south of Seattle to a new beachhead in the Los Angeles area \u2014 within the orbit of its main competitor, Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX.<\/p>\n

Just three and a half years ago, Blue Origin\u2019s workforce amounted to 600 employees, and even then, Bezos said his company\u2019s 300,000-square-foot office and production facility in Kent was \u201cbusting out of the seams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the employee count is at around 2,500, heading toward 3,500 in the next year. That\u2019s according to a report from a Bangkok space conference quoting Clay Mowry, Blue Origin\u2019s vice president for global sales, marketing and customer experience.<\/p>\n

To be sure, there are lots of places to put those employees \u2014 including a rocket test facility nestled amid 165,000 acres of Bezos-owned ranch land in West Texas; a 750,000-square-foot New Glenn rocket factory in Florida, plus a leased launch complex and a servicing center; a 200,000-square-foot BE-4 engine factory in Alabama; and a business office in Arlington, Va.<\/p>\n

Now you can add Los Angeles to the list: Blue Origin is ramping up a California propulsion system design and development operation in the L.A. area to support the teams in Kent, Texas and Alabama.<\/p>\n

For now, the Engines Design Office accounts for only seven of the nearly 700 open positions at Blue Origin. Most of the openings for propulsion engineers (and other jobs, for that matter) are still at the Kent HQ. And the exact location for the L.A.-area office isn\u2019t mentioned in the job listings or current California business filings. But the fact that there\u2019ll be a California presence seems to serve as recognition of Southern California\u2019s continuing importance as a locale for rocket development.<\/p>\n

For what it\u2019s worth, SpaceX\u2019s headquarters is located in Hawthorne, Calif., just a few blocks beyond Los Angeles\u2019 city limits. Virgin Orbit is headquartered down the road in Long Beach, Calif. And Relativity Space, which was founded in Seattle by Blue Origin alumni, now has its home base near Los Angeles International Airport.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve reached out to Blue Origin for comment on their expansion plans, in L.A., Kent and elsewhere, and will update this report with anything we can pass along.<\/p>\n