{"id":19618,"date":"2015-08-25T19:45:43","date_gmt":"2015-08-25T11:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/jeff-bezos-set-to-announce-big-news-about-blue-origins-florida-launch-plans\/"},"modified":"2015-08-25T19:45:43","modified_gmt":"2015-08-25T11:45:43","slug":"jeff-bezos-set-to-announce-big-news-about-blue-origins-florida-launch-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/jeff-bezos-set-to-announce-big-news-about-blue-origins-florida-launch-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos set to announce big news about Blue Origin\u2019s Florida launch plans"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_195493\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-195493\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-195493 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/150825-bezosblue-620x349.jpg\" alt=\"Jeff Bezos\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/150825-bezosblue-620x349.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/150825-bezosblue-1240x698.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-195493\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amazon\u2019s billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, inspects Blue Origin\u2019s launch facility in West Texas before a test flight in April. (Credit: Blue Origin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is heading to&nbsp;Cape Canaveral next month to make a \u201csignificant announcement regarding the emerging commercial launch industry\u201d&nbsp;\u2014 most likely about plans for his Blue Origin space venture to build and launch rockets on Florida\u2019s Space Coast.<\/p>\n<p>The media invitation went out this week for the Sept. 15 event at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. No further details were provided about the subject of the announcement, but Blue Origin has been working for years to secure a Florida facility.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos\u2019 privately financed venture aims to send tourists and researchers to the edge of space in a vertical-launch-and-landing suborbital vehicle called New Shepard. An uncrewed prototype blasted off for&nbsp;its first developmental&nbsp;test flight in April&nbsp;at Blue Origin\u2019s West Texas rocket range. The company is also working on an orbital launch system, with the aim of winning NASA contracts to ferry crew and cargo to the International Space Station. Developing that system is expected to be the focus&nbsp;in Florida.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-188079 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png\" alt=\"pluto\" width=\"250\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png 250w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-200x151.png 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-132x100.png 132w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\"><br \/>\n<strong>Science journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong>&nbsp;is the author of &#8220;The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Florida Today reported that Blue Origin has been negotiating a package with Space Florida and other state agencies that would result in the construction of a manufacturing facility at Exploration Park, south of NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center, and eventually lead to orbital launches from Space Florida\u2019s&nbsp;Launch Complex 36. Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson recently suggested that orbital flights could begin by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Space Florida\u2019s board authorized the state\u2019s economic development agency to wrap up the terms of an agreement for the package, known by the code name \u201cProject Panther,\u201d Florida Today said. The news outlet quoted Howard Haug, Space Florida\u2019s treasurer and chief investment officer, as saying the deal would represent more than $200 million of investment and several hundred jobs.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos founded Blue Origin in the year 2000 to follow through on his childhood dreams of spaceflight, and the venture currently has its headquarters and production facilities south of Seattle, in Kent, Wash. In 2013, Blue Origin lost out to SpaceX in a bid to take control of Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. Since then, the company has been looking for expansion opportunities in Florida and other areas of the southeast U.S.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the New Shepard suborbital system and its own orbital launch system, Blue Origin is developing the&nbsp;BE-4 rocket engine for potential use on United Launch Alliance\u2019s next-generation&nbsp;rockets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amazon\u2019s billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, inspects Blue Origin\u2019s launch facility in West Texas before a test flight in April. (Credit: Blue Origin) Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is heading to&nbsp;Cape Canaveral next month to make a \u201csignificant announcement regarding the emerging commercial launch industry\u201d&nbsp;\u2014 most likely about plans for his Blue Origin space venture to build [&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":[275,509,2361,1046],"class_list":["post-19618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-amazon","tag-blue-origin","tag-florida","tag-jeff-bezos"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19618"}],"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=19618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}