ORLANDO, Fla. _ Blue Origin has entered into an agreement to build a new testing and refurbishment center on Florida's Space Coast.
According to Space Florida, the state's spaceport authority, the company is moving ahead with a $60 million facility in Exploration Park, the state-run complex near Kennedy Space Center where Blue Origin has already built a more than $200 million rocket factory, set to open early next year.
The new testing and refurbishment complex will create about 50 jobs with estimated annual wages of $70,000, plus benefits, according to Space Florida's board of director meeting agenda. The board approved Space Florida to enter into an agreement with Blue Origin regarding the facility last month.
As part of the pact, the state will use tax dollars to reimburse Blue Origin up to $4 million in common infrastructure costs, such as roads and utilities.
Blue Origin's investment in a second Space Coast facility is separate from its original commitment to the Cape, when it announced it would build a 750,000-square-foot factory and invest in Launch Complexes 36 and 11 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The company, led by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, is building its New Glenn rocket on the Space Coast, with plans for a 2020 launch.
"This is a second significant step ... hopefully, there will be more," said Dale Ketcham, vice president of government and external relations at Space Florida. "They're going to need it because they are trying to get up into business."
The new testing and refurbishment facility will be central to Blue Origin's commitment to reusability. The first stage of the New Glenn rocket, which provides the muscle for the launch, will be fully reusable, Blue Origin has said. It will land on a ship after separation from the second stage.
The company secured a major contract with United Launch Alliance _ a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing _ last week to supply its next-generation BE-4 engines for ULA's upcoming Vulcan Centaur rocket. The engines will also be used in New Glenn. But instead of being constructed in Florida, the engines will be coming from a new $200 million facility in Huntsville, Ala.
Ketcham said it was an understandable choice.
"At the end of the day, that was probably prudent," Ketcham said. "Politics is part of the marketplace, so having a stake in the great state of Alabama probably isn't a bad idea."
Besides, he said, "their bigger facility is in Florida."
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