Blue Origin Selects Florida’s Space Coast for Production and Launch Site, SpaceRef Business
“Blue Origin has selected the Florida Space Coast to locate a new manufacturing facility and signed an agreement to use Launch Complex 36 (Pad B) to launch their new reusable rocket which they expect to fly from the Cape by 2020.”
Marc’s note: Launch Complex 36, Pad A, is being used by Moon Express.
Blue Origin: Coming to the Space Coast
“One of the unique things about our Florida operations is that we aren’t just launching here, we’re building here. At Exploration Park, we’ll have a 21st century production facility where we’ll focus on manufacturing our reusable fleet of orbital launchers and readying them for flight again and again. Locating vehicle assembly near our launch site eases the challenge of processing and transporting really big rockets.”

Rubio Welcomes Blue Origin To Florida’s Space Coast

Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member...

21 replies on “Blue Origin Is Headed to Florida”

  1. The space sector is a busy place (of media events) these days. Hope to see some real traction take place in the act of actually putting stuff into space.

        3. Detailed information about BO’s plans isn’t easy to come by. We know that it has a vertical-landing LNG/LOX first stage using BE-4 engines and an expendable LH2/LOX second stage using BE-3’s. Some renderings show 4 engines on the first stage, but the more reliable scaling factor comes from a dragon-esque crew capsule they plan on putting on top, which would supposedly have a mass of ~10,000kg. With the power of the BE-4, this suggests a two-engine design, with a capacity similar to a F9 or Atlas V (no booster variant).

          3. They could burn both engines. Have to really deep throttle though. May not be able to throttle that low. Your separate engine may be the way they go. Come back to land, I thought they were going to land on a barge.

          6. Blue might well go after CRS and CC contracts – once they actually have something flying. But Bezos explicitly ruled out going after DoD launches.

            Of course all business pronouncements are potentially subject to change without notice.

  5. What happens if AR succeeds in buying ULA? I assume that they will abandon the Vulcan and 86 the BE-4 funding.

    “Fully funded development
    United Launch Alliance (ULA)–maker of the Atlas V and Delta IV launch systems–has chosen the BE-4 to power its next generation Vulcan launch vehicle. With an uninterrupted record of more than 90 successful launches, ULA is America’s most dependable launch provider. Together, Blue Origin and ULA are funding 100% of the development of this new high-thrust American engine.”

      3. I’m not too surprised… $2B is not really that generous, especially when having to split that with their partners.

        Also, I’m sure Boeing wasn’t too keen, after spending all that blood & sweat on the Starliner (still haven’t gotten used to that name). Yes, I know that’s the Atlas V, not the Vulcan w/BO engines. But I wouldn’t put it past AR to “improve” a successful launch vehicle, by slapping on an AR-engine (at least it wouldn’t be Russian, but still…).

        All that may eat into the desire for something that looks like a low-bid to start with.

  6. 330 jobs? A start I guess. SpaceX has 4000 workers. The Gov. should have 10x on his figures. 2 more skin heads. I see a lot of football coach skin heads. Less time shaving their heads would give them more time to think about their work. Maybe a religious cult. Use to be a bad group called Skinheads. White power outfit I think or Nazi. I would not want to be a Skinhead. I just use comb over.

Comments are closed.