Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos ’ rocket party Blue Origin hasofficially commence constructionon a Huntsville , Alabama facility that will produce locomotive engine for its New Glenn two - stage , partially reusable launching system , as well as the United Launch Alliance ( ULA ) Vulcan Centaur , Engadget report .
concord to AL.com , the $ 200 million , 46 - Akka facility in Huntsville — sometimes called “ Rocket City ” for its long history with spaceflight projection — will employ some 300 - 400 workers to establish both BE-3 and BE-4 engines , and is planned to be “ highly automate . ” Parts of the manufacturing process will be linear , i.e. 3-D - printed .
“ The locomotive engine has a great deal of linear share , ” Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith severalise AL.com . “ It has some very unique facing and dissimilar ways we produce that locomotive . One of the thing that ’s not always obvious is that we at Blue Origin are a ‘ make ’ sign of the zodiac . We ’re not an planimeter . We literally make everything that we have . We do n’t have a lot of ‘ progress to spec . ’ ”
“ All of our things are ‘ build to publish , ’ ” Smith added . “ Everything that you ’ll see that ’s on that locomotive engine is actually give way to be built from effectively stripe stock or powder that we put into that readiness . ”
Smith lend that the manufactory should be capable of grow “ dozens ” of rocket engines annually .
Blue Origin is plan on running the first crew test of its live New Shepard subocular fomite in 2019 , while it hopes for New Glenn ’s first flying to space totake station by 2021 . ULA , a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin , is planning on receive the Vulcan Centaur replace its current line of Atlas and Delta rockets , the former of which uses Russian rocket engines , AL.com noted . ULA ’s selection of the BE-4 for that system in September 2018 was a critical factor in Blue Origin ’s decision to build the factory in Alabama .
According to SpaceNews , the BE-3 variant to be made at the facility ( the BE-3U ) is to be used for the New Glenn ’s 2nd stage . Smith also denote that Blue Origin is working on an agreement with NASA to take over construction 4670 at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville for toleration testing .
TheSeattle Times notedthat both the New Glenn and Vulcan Centaur systems have been selected by the U.S. Air Force for future national security measure missions , which could “ end the U.S. ’ current dependency on using Russian RD-180 engine for decisive national security launches . ”
[ Al.com/SpaceNewsviaEngadget ]
blue originNew ShepardrocketsSpaceTechnologyVulcan Centaur
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