Today, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos unveiled plans around setting up a rocket manufacturing plant in good old Florida. The news was announced in Cape Canaveral, of course.
The company that Bezos is using to take on SpaceX is called Blue Origin and he plans on investing $200M into getting it off of the ground…so to speak.
New Shepard, a Blue Origin rocket, is already being developed and tested and the company said it’s partnering with the United Launch Alliance, which includes Boeing and Lockheed Martin, for future engine development.
From Blue Origin’s press release:
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.
We’ll be launching from here later this decade. You will hear us before you see us. Our American-made BE-4 engine – the power behind our orbital launch vehicle – will be acceptance tested here. Our BE-4 engine will also help make history as it powers the first flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket.
This space (ha!) is hot and there’s a lot of money flowing through private spaceflight already.