{"id":19334,"date":"2016-06-28T20:52:25","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T12:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/jeff-bezos-provides-a-sneak-peek-at-blue-origins-orbital-rocket-factory-in-florida\/"},"modified":"2016-06-28T20:52:25","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T12:52:25","slug":"jeff-bezos-provides-a-sneak-peek-at-blue-origins-orbital-rocket-factory-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/jeff-bezos-provides-a-sneak-peek-at-blue-origins-orbital-rocket-factory-in-florida\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos provides a sneak peek at Blue Origin\u2019s orbital rocket factory in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Blue
An artist\u2019s rendering shows Blue Origin\u2019s orbital vehicle production facility, which is under construction in Florida. (Credit: Blue Origin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos today put a spotlight on the construction of a giant rocket production facility in Florida for his Blue Origin space venture \u2013 but he also gave a shout-out to the engine production team back in Kent, Wash.<\/p>\n

In an email to Blue Origin\u2019s fans, Bezos noted that ground has been broken for an orbital vehicle manufacturing site at Exploration Park, just south of NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (Ground-clearing actually began last month.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 750,000-square-foot rocket factory is custom-built from the ground up to accommodate manufacturing, processing, integration and testing,\u201d Bezos wrote. In comparison, the production facility in Kent where Blue Origin is building rocket engines and its New Shepard suborbital spaceships takes in about 300,000 square feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting to see the bulldozers in action \u2013 we\u2019re clearing the way for the production of a reusable fleet of orbital vehicles that we will launch and land, again and again,\u201d Bezos said.<\/p>\n

\"Site
Construction equipment is clearing the site. (Credit: Jeff Bezos via Blue Origin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The factory is due for completion in December 2017. \u201cAmong other things, the facility hosts large-scale friction stir welding and automated composite processing equipment,\u201d Bezos wrote.<\/p>\n

One of the big questions has to do with production of the natural gas-fueled BE-4 rocket engine that Blue Origin is developing for use on its future orbital rockets as well as for United Launch Alliance\u2019s next-generation Vulcan rocket. In his email, Bezos said that everything for Blue Origin\u2019s orbital vehicles will be built at the Florida facility \u2013 except for the engine.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitial BE-4 engine production will occur at our Kent facility while we conduct a site selection process later this year for a larger engine production facility to accommodate higher production rates,\u201d Bezos said.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial
A bird\u2019s-eye view shows Blue Origin\u2019s Florida construction site. (Aerial Innovations via Blue Origin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During last week\u2019s NewSpace 2016 conference in Seattle, Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson said the BE-4 site selection process would unfold over the coming year.<\/p>\n

State incentives could play a part in the process. In January, Meyerson told business executives in Seattle that the expiration of tax credits made Washington state less competitive. But when Meyerson was asked last week what Washington state residents should say to their lawmakers about the issue, he put a more positive spin on the state\u2019s prospects.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Washington is already \u2026 a great place to set up shop, so I think telling your congressman that you\u2019re interested in space and the space industry is the first thing,\u201d Meyerson said, \u201cand encouraging them to continue to do things \u2013 make investments in education, investments in the kinds of things that are going to bring in businesses like Blue Origin and keep us here in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Blue
An artist\u2019s conception shows the rocket factory in Florida. (Credit: Jeff Bezos via Blue Origin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bezos\u2019 strategy for Blue Origin is to start out with suborbital flights that would send passengers and scientific payloads on brief, up-and-down trips from the company\u2019s launch facility in West Texas. The latest uncrewed test flight of the reusable New Shepard craft took place in Texas last week.<\/p>\n

Blue Origin\u2019s Florida facility is meant to play the key role in expanding the company\u2019s reach to Earth orbit, with the long-term goal of having millions of people living and working in space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An artist\u2019s rendering shows Blue Origin\u2019s orbital vehicle production facility, which is under construction in Florida. (Credit: Blue Origin) Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos today put a spotlight on the construction of a giant rocket production facility in Florida for his Blue Origin space venture \u2013 but he also gave a shout-out to the engine production team back in […]<\/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-19334","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\/19334"}],"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=19334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}