At a news conference at Cape Canaveral, Bezos said his Blue Origin space firm would build and launch rockets there.
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Blue Origin predicts creating 330 jobs and having its rocket ready to fly by 2020, reviving a Space Coast launch site that’s been unused since 2005. “Now we are thrilled to be coming to the Sunshine State for a new era of exploration”. According to Blue Origin, BE-4 offers the fastest way to replace Russian RD-180 engines by a US-made product. Speakers at the event included Governor Scott and Sen. The new rocket will launch and land vertically to reuse its first stage.
“Locating vehicle assembly near our launch site eases the challenge of processing and transporting really big rockets”, Bezos said. Bezos told reporters that the company received detailed proposals from five states wishing to host the new facility.
The unnamed monster rocket will take on spaceflight companies such as the US-based aerospace SpaceX and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic that are exploring commercial space vehicles. “Whether it’s providing regulatory confidence, increasing range operational efficiency or by working with our other range partners to provide scheduling assurance, these improvements and additions to the nation’s space transportation infrastructure all contribute to a robust and cost effective space transportation capability for both public and private sector users, which meets the exact intent of the Commercial Space Launch Act”.
15, Bezos said that Blue Origin will build rockets and send them into orbit from Florida. The company also has a testing facility in Texas where it launched its first test flight in April. Blue Origin and ULA announced a production agreement for the BE-4 engine last week. “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”. The rocket engine, which will power the flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, is now in development.
Cooperation between NASA and private companies has accelerated in the past year.
And SpaceX said it would launch two satellites from Cape Canaveral between late 2017 and 2018. The company, based in Kent, Washington aspires to ferry space tourists in the future visits that would allow people to witness live the astonishing images now reserved for astronauts and experience for themselves zero-gravity conditions.
They are also capitalists, who believe industry, not government, has the best shot at succeeding in space, said Gregory Autry, assistant professor of clinical entrepreneurship at the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at USC’s Marshall School of Business. SpaceX hopes to attempt another landing later this year.
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With companies like SpaceX and Boeing already rocking along, the private space race is red hot – and now Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space firm is setting up its own mini-space port.
