posted 09-15-2015 11:36 AM               

Coming to the Space Coast

Today (Sept. 15) we announced that we'll be flying our orbital launch vehicle from Florida. Cape Canaveral has long been a gateway to humankind's greatest adventures. As a kid, I was inspired by the giant Saturn V missions that roared to life from these shores. Now we are thrilled to be coming to the Sunshine State for a new era of exploration.

Our new home on the Space Coast is anchored by the launch site at Complex 36. During its 43 years of service, 145 launches thundered into space from this site. The Mariner missions — the first U.S. spacecraft to visit other planets — lifted off from Complex 36. So did Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt; Surveyor 1, the first U.S. spacecraft to land softly on the Moon; and multiple weather, communications and national defense payloads hopped their rides to space from LC-36. The site saw its last launch in 2005 and the pad has stood silent for more than 10 years — too long. We can't wait to fix that.

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.

Residents of the Space Coast have enjoyed front-row seats to the future for nearly 60 years. Our team's passion for pioneering is the perfect fit for a community dedicated to forging new frontiers. Keep watching.

posted 06-29-2016 07:53 AM               

We broke ground on our orbital vehicle manufacturing site in Florida.

The 750,000 square foot rocket factory is custom-built from the ground up to accommodate manufacturing, processing, integration and testing. Among other things, the facility hosts large scale friction stir welding and automated composite processing equipment. All of the vehicle will be manufactured in this facility except for the engines. Initial BE-4 engine production will occur at our Kent facility while we conduct a site selection process later this year for a larger engine production facility to accommodate higher production rates.

I've included some photos that will give you an idea of what the vehicle manufacturing facility will look like in December 2017 when it's complete.

It's exciting to see the bulldozers in action — we're clearing the way for the production of a reusable fleet of orbital vehicles that we will launch and land, again and again.

posted 12-06-2016 08:27 AM               

First Steel Goes Up in Florida

Just a very short note to update you on the 750,000 square-foot New Glenn rocket factory we're building in Florida. The team has made extraordinary progress—as you can see here, the first steel is now going up.

And again, here's an image of what it will look like by the end of 2017.

posted 04-13-2017 01:27 PM               

Construction is progressing on Blue Origin's 750,000-square-foot facility being built at Exploration Park on NASA Kennedy Space Center property in Florida.

Blue Origin will use the factory to manufacture its two-stage super-heavy-lift New Glenn launch vehicle and launch the vehicles from Space Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

posted 07-20-2017 06:39 PM               

Manufacturing facility for the heavy-lift New Glenn launch vehicle is coming along nicely.

posted 12-20-2017 09:07 AM               

The private rocketry company bankrolled by Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos was granted a temporary certificate of occupancy for a portion of its massive facility on Space Commerce Way Monday morning and began moving in by Tuesday [Dec. 12].

"If you haven't been on Space Commerce Way to see their beautiful, ginormous – that's the only way to describe it – facility where they're going to be manufacturing a rocket ... incredible facility, and they are moving in there today," said Nancy Bray, director of spaceport integration and services at Kennedy Space Center, during a Tuesday transportation conference at Port Canaveral.

Full occupancy of the 750,000-square-foot factory just south of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will be granted by Space Florida, which manages KSC's Exploration Park, at a later date.

posted 12-20-2017 09:09 AM               

LOX/LNG oxidizer and propellant tanks delivered to LC-36. Starting to look more and more like a launch pad!

posted 03-22-2019 04:52 PM               

Just south of Blue Origin's imposing campus at Kennedy Space Center, an empty patch of land will soon be transformed into a sprawling, technology-laden extension of the aerospace company's existing rocket manufacturing facility.

Labeled as "South Campus" in water management district documents obtained by FLORIDA TODAY, the 90-acre expansion will connect to the factory at Exploration Park, which is a publicly accessible region just west of KSC's main gate. The two-lane Space Commerce Way winds through the area, connecting other players like satellite company OneWeb, economic development agency Space Florida and the main entrance to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

The south campus will nearly double the size of land Blue Origin already leases from NASA, enabling the Jeff Bezos-led company to establish "programs complimentary to those constructed on the adjacent North Campus," according to the documents. Blue will build 270- and 313-foot variants of New Glenn rockets in the massive blue-and-white factory on the north campus, which will launch no sooner than 2020.

posted 03-11-2020 10:53 AM               

An inside look at our completed mission control in the New Glenn rocket factory.