posted 03-10-2016 09:47 AM               

• Ars Technica:
  Behind the curtain: Ars goes inside Blue Origin's secretive rocket factory

  Bezos spent the better part of three hours showing us around Blue Origin's headquarters, from the full-size replica of Jules Verne's Victorian-era spacecraft to the company's football-field sized machining rooms and rocket bays.

  

• GeekWire:
  Jeff Bezos lifts curtain on Blue Origin rocket factory, lays out grand plan for space travel that spans hundreds of years

  "I think space is chock full of resources," Bezos told reporters. "This is all my view, and I'll be dead before I'm proved wrong, so it's a very safe prediction to make. But my view is that there will be a 'Great Inversion.'"

• The New York Times:
  Jeff Bezos Lifts Veil on His Rocket Company, Blue Origin

  For almost four hours, Mr. Bezos, who only occasionally talks to the press, led 11 reporters on a tour of the factory and answered a litany of questions over lunch.

• Washington Post:
  Jeff Bezos pulls back the curtain on his plans for space

  "I wanted to start a space company from when I was a little kid, but I never expected to have the resources to do so," Bezos told a small group of reporters invited to tour the center Tuesday. "Then I won this lottery ticket called Amazon.com. And so when Amazon became a successful company, I realized, 'Hey, I can actually fulfill my childhood dreams of starting a space company,' and that's what I did."

  

• Florida Today:
  Jeff Bezos offers a glimpse of Blue Origin rocket plant

  You could drive right past the building, surrounded by a green chain link fence and next to a railroad track, without realizing that a big part of Brevard County's high-tech future is inside.

  There is not even a sign outside to tell the public that it's the headquarters of Blue Origin, the private rocket company that aims to revolutionize the business and technology behind space travel.There's just a weathered concrete sign that reads 21218 76th Avenue South.

• The Huntsville Times:
  Jeff Bezos talks Amazon, space, how he works and Elon Musk in first ever tour of Blue Origin

  "What would surprise Wernher von Braun if he could see this plant?" a reporter asked, and Bezos' eyes lit up. "That's an excellent question!" he said.

  "A lot would be very familiar," Bezos said. The basics of rocketry haven't changed since "the greatest hits from the '60s," he said, but what has changed are "the manufacturing techniques you use."

• The Seattle Times:
  Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin reveals a mix of serious tech and space-fan fun

  Inside the facility, Bezos declared, "This is where all the magic happens."

  In a vast, 62-foot-high assembly bay, engineers and mechanics worked on building three New Shepard rockets.

  

• Associated Press:
  Blue Origin planning human test flights to space by 2017

  Private space travel company Blue Origin expects to launch its first people in 2017, company founder Jeff Bezos said Tuesday during a tour of the venture's research and development site outside Seattle.

  Those won't be paying customers, he said, but thousands have expressed interest in paying for a trip on a suborbital craft.

• Reuters:
  Bezos' space company aims for passenger flights in 2018

  "We'll probably fly test pilots in 2017, and if we're successful then I'd imagine putting paying astronauts on in 2018," Bezos said at the sprawling plant south of Seattle.

  The company expects to build six New Shepard vehicles, which are designed to autonomously fly six passengers to more than 62 miles (100 km) above Earth, high enough to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the planet set against the blackness of space.

• Aviation Week & Space Technology:
  Blue Origin Gears Up for BE-4 Engine Production

  Blue Origin is reconfiguring its sprawling factory in this Seattle suburb to manufacture its 550,000-lb.-thrust BE-4 engine at an initial rate of a dozen a year.

  

• SpaceNews:
  Blue Origin plans growth spurt this year

  Blue Origin plans to grow significantly over the next year as the company ramps up development of its BE-4 engine and an orbital launch vehicle, while continuing a series of test flights of its New Shepard suborbital vehicle.

posted 01-06-2020 07:06 PM               

Blue Origin Opens New Headquarters in Kent, Washington

Today [Jan. 6, 2020], Blue Origin opened our new headquarters and R&D facility in Kent, Washington. The facility is Blue Origin's hub of operations as we continue to grow our team. Below are excerpts from remarks given by Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith at today's ribbon cutting event.

Above: Pictured left to right: WA State Representative Tina Orwall, US Congressman Denny Heck, US Congressman Adam Smith, Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith, Kent Mayor Dana Ralph, US Congressman Derek Kilmer, WA State Senator Lisa Wellman, WA State Representative J.T. Wilcox, and Blue Origin COO Terry Benedict

"2019 was a great year of progress and preparation for us, and 2020 is going to be even more remarkable – so we're growing quickly. We grew by a third last year and we're going to continue to grow at a rapid pace.

"We named this building the O'Neill Building after Gerard O'Neill, a physicist who envisioned millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. Gerard O'Neill was one of the visionaries who thought about how we go out into space in a quick and sustainable way so that we can preserve our planet.

"For those of you that are Washington State residents, what is exciting is we're going to be doing all this work from a headquarters based here in Kent. It's a remarkable statement to say that we're going to fly humans to space, we're going to build and design large engines and a large orbital rocket, and we're going to go back to the Moon – all through work centered here.

"We're excited to continue to see this growth in this new facility. We broke ground on this facility in January of 2019 and it came up in just 11 months. It houses approximately 1500 people. The building sits on a 30-acre plot of land, and we're using 13 of those acres for a wildlife habitat and flood storage, as well as protecting against invasive species. This is a very sustainable building with better insulation and better energy consumption than a traditional building. And it all came together very quickly.

"This couldn't have been done without our great partners. Thanks to Sprung Instant Structures, our architect Nelson, our general contractor Sierra Construction, civil engineering group Barghausen Consulting Engineers and our environmental consultants Soundview Consultants.

"We want to recognize Congressman Smith, Congressman Kilmer and Congressman Heck for joining us here today, thank you for your support. We also want to give a huge thank you to the City of Kent and Mayor Dana Ralph for their tremendous support and leadership."