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posted by martyb on Wednesday February 19 2020, @06:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the Why-do-you-throw-them-away-after-using-them-just-once? dept.

Blue Origin opens rocket engine factory

Blue Origin formally opened a factory Feb. 17 that the company plans to use to produce engines both for its vehicles and for United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony marked the completion of a 350,000-square-foot factory [in Huntsville, Alabama] that will produce BE-4 and BE-3U engines. The factory, built in a little more than a year, will host more than 300 employees and produce up to 42 engines a year.

[...] While the building is complete, Blue Origin is not yet ready to start producing engines there. Employees will start moving into the factory this week, company officials said, with tooling and other equipment to start arriving in the coming weeks. The factory should be ready to start building BE-4 engines this summer, starting with a "site certification" engine that will be fired at both at Blue Origin's West Texas test site and a test stand at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center that the company is refurbishing.

Blue Origin is currently building BE-4 engines at its headquarters in Kent, Washington. That work includes a series of engines used in testing and two "flight readiness" engines that Smith said in his remarks will be delivered to United Launch Alliance in May for integration on that company's Vulcan rocket for testing. The first engines intended for flight will also be produced there.

The company plans to transition production over a couple of years from Kent to Huntsville. Once the BE-4 production line is stabilized, Huntsville staff will be trained in Kent and then return to ramp up engine production in Huntsville. Ultimately the factory will be able to produce 42 engines a year, split roughly evenly between the BE-4 and the BE-3U engine that will power the upper stage of New Glenn. The company expects to take two to three years to reach that production rate.

SpaceX is planning to return to the Port of Los Angeles after previously abandoning plans for a Starship factory there.

Previously: Blue Origin Will Build its Rocket Engine in Alabama
Blue Origin Wins Contract to Supply United Launch Alliance With BE-4 Rocket Engines
Blue Origin Starts Construction of Rocket Engine Factory in Alabama


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @06:14PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @06:14PM (#959943)

    When I had a short SpaceX tour (Hawthorne plant) about 5 years ago, my guide said that the rocket engine production line was making an approx an engine every working day -- about 250/year. Each engine was on a pallet and the line moved forward one station/day (many stations, many parts added at each station).

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Wednesday February 19 2020, @06:16PM (1 child)

    by Freeman (732) on Wednesday February 19 2020, @06:16PM (#959946) Journal

    Best to keep SpaceX on it's toes. Don't want them turning into Boeing, et al.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @07:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2020, @07:03PM (#959964)

      Agreed.. but I hope Blue Origin doesn't start playing dirty, which they probably will.

      Alabama is Senator Shelby land. I don't think it's a coincidence. That man needs to kick the bucket, fast. Dude's 85 years old and been screwing over space for a good chunk of the latter half of those years. But he doesn't seem to age. At this rate he'll be turning space into little more than a side-order of pork well into his hundreds.

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Frosty Piss on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:03AM (2 children)

    by Frosty Piss (4971) on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:03AM (#960153)

    Blue Origin is a *VANITY PROJECT*, and not a lot more. It’s a billionaire playing with expensive LEGOs. It should not be taken seriously in terms of contributing to space exploration.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @04:43AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @04:43AM (#960199)

      Do you buy from Amazon? Then you are part of this vanity project too.

      Personally, I've never bought (knowingly) from Amazon. It's true that a few times I've bought on eBay and the seller used Amazon for fulfillment, so I received an unexpected smiley box.

    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday February 20 2020, @04:46PM

      by Freeman (732) on Thursday February 20 2020, @04:46PM (#960341) Journal

      To that extent, Tesla, SpaceX, and Starlink are just Elon Musk Vanity Projects . . .

      Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are insanely rich people and they can afford to have super expensive hobbies. Their space hobbies, just tend to be building actual rockets, instead of model rockets. At which point, they're actually doing something with regards to advancing science and the industry. As opposed to me in the backyard with a cheapo model rocket or mentos and soda.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
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