Last Friday, Blue Origin unveiled a $600 million expansion project at its Rocket Park campus at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The announcement was made by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The Jeff-Bezos-backed aerospace company, which is based in Kent, Washington, is the only operation to manufacture and launch rockets from Florida, according to the governor’s office.
The project will lean on the state's Spaceport Improvement Program (SIP) to help build an 830,000-square-foot upper-stage manufacturing facility at Rocket Park.
The new plant will support 500 aerospace jobs, with average salaries exceeding $98,000.
In a statement, Dave Limp, Blue Origin CEO, said, “Since 2015, we’ve scaled to nearly 4,000 employees, invested more than $2.3 billion across 500 Florida suppliers, and expanded to 11 sites across Brevard and Orange Counties. And we’re just getting started.”
A partnership between Space Florida and FDOT, the Spaceport Improvement Program (SIP) has funded 48 major infrastructure projects since 2012, leveraging more than $531 million in state investment to attract $3.3 billion in private industry funding across Florida's spaceport system.
Blue Origin’s announcement comes just three weeks after the SpaceX competitor announced expansion plans for Huntsville, Alabama.
The company recently announced 100 new jobs, on top of the 1,600 already on staff, to support its thruster production at one of its three Rocket City facilities.
Last month, Blue Origin’s New Glenn launcher, a key element in NASA’s Artemis lunar program, suffered a setback when its upper stage missed its aim and sent a satellite into the wrong orbit. According to a report from Ars Technica, upper-stage difficulties have been a problem for SpaceX's Starship as well. As the dominant force in commercial space, SpaceX is staring down a potential $1.75 trillion valuation when it goes public. While Blue Origin remains a private endeavor, its founder is likely keeping an eye on the effort that will likely crown the world’s first trillionaire.
