Blue Origin clearing land for massive rocket factory

Bulldozers and excavators this week continued clearing land at Kennedy Space Center’s Exploration Park where Blue Origin will build a rocket factory rivaling the area's largest spaceflight facilities.

The 475,000 square foot manufacturing center, which will stand eight stories tall and stretch longer than two football fields, is expected to be in place as soon as the end of next year or early 2018.

A new orbital rocket built there could be ready for a first launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 36 before the end of the decade.

“We are excited to have begun the site preparation work for our orbital launch vehicle manufacturing facility in Florida,” said Blue Origin President Rob Meyerson. “This is just another big step toward our vision of enabling an enduring presence in space.”

Work on the 139-acre site began about eight months after Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon.com and Blue Origin, visited the Cape to announce the company’s intent to build and launch reusable rockets on the Space Coast.

The factory will be the first of its kind in Brevard County, which historically has assembled and launched rockets built elsewhere.

Blue Origin eventually expects to employ more than 300 people with average wages of about $89,000, and to invest more than $200 million in facilities, including some to be built at Launch Complex 36.

Clearing began about two weeks ago of more than 70 acres south and west of Space Commerce Way in Exploration Park, on NASA property managed by Space Florida. Mounds of brush now dot the construction site described in permitting records as abandoned citrus grove overgrown with Brazilian pepper and Australian pine.

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“It certainly is an indication that this very big development in the world of commercial aerospace is proceeding, and we’re very excited about what the potential is, in terms of jobs, in terms of other future capital investment,” said Troy Post, director of the North Brevard Economic Development Zone.

The zone, which was established in 2011 to help mitigate the impact of the shuttle program’s retirement, will contribute $8 million to the project once a certificate of occupancy is issued. That’s part of at least $18 million in state incentives given to Blue Origin.

Public records show Blue Origin’s main manufacturing facility will measure 725 feet long, 345 feet wide and 75 feet tall, with a “super high bay” rising 82 feet. KSC Director Bob Cabana recently compared the factory's footprint to that of NASA's 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building.

And Blue Origin's Exploration Park plans leave room for an additional 150,000 square-foot manufacturing building and 50,000 square-foot processing facility that could be added later.

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The company headquartered near Seattle currently is testing its suborbital New Shepard vehicle, a booster and capsule that have launched to space and landed three times at Blue Origin's private range in West Texas. A fourth unmanned test flight is expected before the end of this month.

Suborbital flights of paying space tourists could begin within two years. At the same time, the company is developing a larger orbital rocket, powered by engines built in-house, for launch by the end of the decade.

Bezos’ long-term goal is to drastically lower the cost of human spaceflight, making it possible for millions of people to live and work in space.

“I want thousands of entrepreneurs doing amazing things in space,” he said this week at the Code Conference in California. “And to do that, we have to dramatically lower the cost of access to space.”

Blue Origin's is only the first large project destined for Exploration Park. OneWeb Satellites will build a satellite manufacturing facility measuring at least 100,000 square feet across the street, employing about 250 people.

Contact Dean at 321-242-3668 or jdean@floridatoday.com. And follow on Twitter at @flatoday_jdean and on Facebook at facebook.com/jamesdeanspace.