{"id":19274,"date":"2016-08-26T20:38:57","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T12:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/concrete-poured-for-blue-origins-orbital-space-complex-in-florida\/"},"modified":"2016-08-26T20:38:57","modified_gmt":"2016-08-26T12:38:57","slug":"concrete-poured-for-blue-origins-orbital-space-complex-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/concrete-poured-for-blue-origins-orbital-space-complex-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Concrete poured for Blue Origin\u2019s orbital space complex in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_270252\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-270252\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-270252\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160826-blue-origin-concrete-2-630x473.jpg\" alt=\"Blue Origin rocket factory site\" width=\"630\" height=\"473\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160826-blue-origin-concrete-2-630x473.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160826-blue-origin-concrete-2-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/160826-blue-origin-concrete-2.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-270252\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers pour concrete at the site of Blue Origin\u2019s rocket factory in Florida. (Credit: Space Florida)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Work is progressing on the&nbsp;facility&nbsp;in Florida where Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture plans to build its orbital spaceships.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos called attention to the groundbreaking milestone&nbsp;for the 750,000-square-foot rocket factory in June. Today, Space Florida, the state development agency that\u2019s leasing the property and Cape Canaveral\u2019s&nbsp;Launch Complex 36 to Blue Origin,&nbsp;tweeted&nbsp;that concrete is being poured for the campus\u2019 first building.<\/p>\n<p>The $200 million manufacturing and launch facility at Kennedy Space Center\u2019s Exploration Park is expected to open by early 2018 and employ about 300 people.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s in addition to the folks who work at Blue Origin\u2019s headquarters and production facility in Kent, Wash., and at its suborbital launch complex in West Texas. The company says it has about 700 employees today.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin&nbsp;is currently focusing on&nbsp;its suborbital space effort. So far it\u2019s conducted four fully successful uncrewed tests of its reusable, hydrogen-fueled New Shepard spaceship, which is built in Kent and flown in Texas.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Flight Four \u2013 One Chute Out\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xYYTuZCjZcE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If the test program proceeds according to plan, Bezos says test flights with crew members could begin next year, with paying passengers climbing aboard in 2018. The price for a suborbital flight has not yet been set.<\/p>\n<p>The Florida facility will be devoted to orbital operations, involving a spacecraft currently known as \u201cVery Big Brother.\u201d The orbital craft could eventually be offered to NASA as a transport ship for cargo or&nbsp;astronauts flying to and from the International Space Station. It could take on other missions as well.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin is also in the midst of developing its BE-4 rocket engine, fueled by liquefied natural gas, for use on its own orbital rocket as well as on United Launch Alliance\u2019s next-generation Vulcan rocket. By all reports, work on the BE-4 is proceeding apace in Kent. Eventually, Blue Origin will have to decide whether the BE-4 will be mass-produced in Kent, in Florida or someplace else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Workers pour concrete at the site of Blue Origin\u2019s rocket factory in Florida. (Credit: Space Florida) Work is progressing on the&nbsp;facility&nbsp;in Florida where Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture plans to build its orbital spaceships. Bezos called attention to the groundbreaking milestone&nbsp;for the 750,000-square-foot rocket factory in June. Today, Space Florida, the state [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[509,291,1046],"class_list":["post-19274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-commercial-space","tag-jeff-bezos"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}