Theprivateaerospace companyBlue Origin has a number of development, manufacturing, and test facilities in fourUSstates:Washington,Texas,Florida, andAlabama.[citation needed]
Blue Origin began in 2000 with only adevelopment and office facility nearSeattle, Washington. By 2003 Blue Origin was buying land inwest Texas for arocket enginetest facility and, subsequently, for asuborbitalrocket launch site.[1] Blue Origin is currently developing a neworbital launch facility atCape Canaveral Space Force Station and a nearby rocket assembly facility inBrevard County, Florida.[2]
The company is headquartered on 11 hectares (26 acres) of industrial land inKent, Washington, a suburb ofSeattle, where its research and development is located. The facility was 24,000 m2 (260,000 sq ft) in size in early 2015,[3] growing to 28,000 m2 (300,000 sq ft) by March 2016 with Blue Origin leasing additional space in adjacent office buildings. As of March 2016[update], the Kent facility housed engineering, manufacturing and business operations and the majority of the 600-person[4] Blue Origin workforce, which grew from about 350 persons at Kent in May 2015.[3] They added an additional 42,630 m2 (458,900 sq ft) of office, manufacturing and warehouse space to their headquarters facilities in 2016 and 2017.[5][6] In late 2017, Blue Origin purchased an additional 13 hectares (31 acres)—adding to their existing 11 hectares (26 acres)—of land on which they plan to build another 32,000 m2 (340,000 sq ft) of facility in Washington state.[7]
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In September 2015, Blue Origin leasedLaunch Complex 36 (LC-36) inCape Canaveral,Florida to build a launch pad for theirorbitallaunch vehicleNew Glenn. As of March 2016[update], the first Blue Origin launch from LC36 was planned for 2020. An August 2015 estimate predicted that initial launch happening earlier than 2020.[8] Ground-breaking for the facility to begin construction occurred in June 2016.[9] By March 2018, Blue's construction at LC-36 was lagging, but the company stated they did not think it would delay achieving the anticipated 2020 initial launch ofNew Glenn.[10] However as of 2022 Blue Origin does not expect to launchNew Glenn until 2023 at the earliest.[11] The factory was complete by 2020 and was being used for the construction ofNew Glenn prototypes by 2021.[12]
The Blue Origin orbital launch site is situated on a total of 306 acres of leased land assembled from formerLaunch Complexes 11,36A, and36B, alongside using the adjacentLaunch Complex 12 for storage. The land parcel will be used to build arocket enginetest stand for theBE-4 engine, alaunch mount—called the Orbital Launch Site by Blue—and a reusable booster refurbishment facility for theNew Glennlaunch vehicle, which is expected to land on a seaborne platform and returned toPort Canaveral for refurbishment.
In addition, the manufacturing of "large elements, such as first stages, second stages, payload fairings, etc." will occur at the Blue Origin launch vehicle factory on Space Commerce Parkway in nearbyExploration Park, near the entrance to theKennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Merritt Island.[13]
In October 2018,Stena Freighter, 182 meter cargo-ship purchased from ferry operatorStena Line, arrived in Florida from Spain. CEO Bob Smith, confirmedStena Freighter would be used as thelanding platform vessel for first-stage boosters.[14] The landing ship will be hydrodynamicallystabilized.[15]
Much like numerous other American rockets, Blue Origin has also set out to have New Glenn dopolar launches fromVandenberg Space Force Base atPoint Arguello,California. Initially, they had their eyes set onSpace Launch Complex 6 thanks to the retirement of its previous launching rockets,United Launch Alliance'sDelta IV andDelta IV Heavy.[16] However, hopes were dashed in April 2023 when theUnited States Space Force instead gaveSpaceX the pad lease forFalcon Heavy and as a secondFalcon 9 site.[17] Instead, as part of an expansion of Vandenberg launch sites bySpace Launch Delta 30,[18] Blue Origin plan on buildingSpace Launch Complex 9 (SLC-9) for West Coast New Glenn capabilities.[19]
Blue Origin has a suborbital launch facility known asLaunch Site One. It is located in theWest Texas region, 25 miles north of the town ofVan Horn at31.451646°+N, -104.762835°+W. Currentlaunch license and experimental permits from the US governmentFederal Aviation Administration authorize flights of Blue Origin's New Shepard suborbital system.[20] In addition to the suborbital launch pads, the West Texas site includes a number ofrocket engine test stands. Engine test cells to support bothhydrolox,methalox andstorable propellant engines are present.
Included are three test cells just for testing the methalox BE-4 engine alone: two full test cells that can support full-thrust and full-duration burns, as well as one that supports short-duration, high-pressurepreburner tests, to "refine theignition sequence and understand thestart transients."[21]
In June 2016, Blue Origin presidentRob Meyerson announced that they would build a new 600,000sqft facility inHuntsville, Alabama called “Blue Engine” to manufacture the largeBE-4 cryogenicrocket engine and theBE-3 engine.These engines will be tested at theNASA Marshall Space Flight Center on the Test Stand 4670.[22]
construction at LC-36. The Air Force ... limits work that can be done on "critical days" around launches, to avoid construction work that could cause mishaps—broken pipelines or severed cables—that would delay those launches. "Part of building is that you've actually got to be able to put a shovel into the ground", Henderson said. "On a critical day at Cape Canaveral you cannot break the surface of the ground". The number of critical days has been growing, in part because of increased launch activity. In 10 of the previous 12 months, he said, more than half of the work days were deemed critical days. "It's nearly impossible to build a project under those kinds of constraints".
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