After successfully launching and landing its reusable rocket for the fourth time, Blue Origin recently broke ground on a new rocket facility site in Florida.
The spaceflight company's founder Jeff Bezos provided a sneak peek of the facility, which will encompass 750,000 square feet of land.
Bezos says the rocket factory will be large enough to accommodate the manufacturing, processing, integration and testing of orbital rockets. It will host automated composite processing equipment and large-scale friction stir welding equipment, he says.
Entire rockets will be developed in the factory, but the rocket engines will still be manufactured at the production facility in Kent, which takes in about 300,000 square feet.
New Rocket Engine Facility
The company will conduct a site selection process later this year for a bigger engine production factory that can accommodate higher production rates, says Bezos.
Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle currently uses the BE-3 engine, but the orbital rocket planned for development will use a BE-4 engine, which is still being manufactured in Kent.
The spaceflight company is working with United Launch Alliance (ULA) to develop BE-4, a rocket engine that will end "American dependence on Russian rocket engines by 2019." The rocket engine could be integrated into the Blue Origin vehicle or ULA's Vulcan rocket.
Rob Meyerson, Blue Origin President, confirmed during the NewSpace 2016 Conference in Seattle that the BE-4 site selection process would unfold this year.
In January, Meyerson told executives that the expiration of tax credits made Washington less competitive. But at the conference, Meyerson said Washington is "a great place to set up shop."
He encouraged residents in Washington to tell Representatives if they are interested in the space industry, particularly in making investments in businesses such as Blue Origin and keeping them in the area.
Orbital Vehicles
The rocket factory in Florida aims to expand Blue Origin's role in reaching Earth's orbit, with the main goal of sending millions of people working and living in space. It will be completed in December 2017.
Furthermore, the company is planning the production of a reusable fleet of orbital vehicles that can launch and land over and over again.
Indeed, Blue Origin has been focusing its efforts on perfecting the repeated launches and landings of the New Shepard vehicle.
The suborbital New Shepard vehicle will be used for scientific experiments and space tourism. Suborbital trips will last for a matter of hours, while space passengers will experience weightlessness for a brief period.
