Blue Origin To Build Its BE-4 Rocket Engine In Alabama, Creating Hundreds of Jobs (theverge.com) 53
Blue Origin has recently announced its plans to manufacture the company's new rocket engine, the BE-4, at a state-of-the-art facility in Huntsville, Alabama. According to The Verge, the benefits for Blue Origin are both practical and political. From the report: On the surface, it's a seemingly innocuous decision meant to capitalize on Huntsville's decades-long history of rocket development. The city is home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, where the Saturn V rocket was developed and where NASA's future massive deep-space rocket, the Space Launch System, will also be worked on. Plus, many private space contractors are based in Huntsville, making spaceflight a key part of the city's economy and a huge jobs creator. It's why Huntsville has been nicknamed Rocket City. But the move is most likely motivated by politics as well, given Blue Origin's plans for the BE-4. The company ultimately hopes to use seven BE-4 engines to power its future massive rocket called the New Glenn, which is supposed to launch sometime before 2020. But that's not the only rocket that the BE-4 could fly on. The United Launch Alliance -- a company responsible for launching most of the satellites for the U.S. military -- is developing a new rocket called Vulcan, and it needs new U.S.-made engines for the vehicle. Blue Origin's move to Huntsville will supposedly generate 342 jobs at the new facility, with salaries averaging $75,000, reports The Verge. Given the city's history, the company should have no problem finding aerospace experts in the area. The only problem that could arise would be if ULA doesn't select the BE-4 as the Vulcan's main engine. "ULA is also considering a second option in case the BE-4 doesn't work out: an engine being developed by longtime manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne called the AR-1," reports The Verge. "Aerojet is only meant to be Plan B for ULA. But it has one advantage that Blue Origin didn't have until now: it's building its engine in Huntsville, Alabama -- and that comes with some very key political protection."
POLITICS (Score:2)
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Re: POLITICS (Score:2)
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It needs engines - China, Russia or France can supply them
Brilliant, using Chinese or Russian engines for strategic independence. Any other bright idea? :-p
computer printed tanks
What? Tanks are milled from sheet metal.
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FL AL LA MI TX CA VA MD OH (Score:2)
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Why not RTFA and answer the question for yourself rather than professing your ignorance in the first post? You want the answer (or at least you ask the question) and the answer is right at your fingertips. If you're interested, then why not read it? Are you just SOOOOOO busy that you have time to post on /. but you don't have 2 minutes to do a tiny amount of reading?
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Because politics is why Huntsville even has a rocket industry to begin with, and why ULA is very interested in these engines. Can't be buying Russian engines to launch American spy sats, now can they?
State of the art? (Score:1)
State of the art in Alabama? That means not making them from wood.
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But it will run on moonshine.
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But it will run on moonshine.
There is prior art. The V2 ran on ethanol from fermented potatoes [wikipedia.org].
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Great, now we're learning from the losers...
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Wernher von Braun says Hallo...
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Except they've been building rockets in Huntsville, Alabama even longer than you've been a classist bigot. Go figure!
Yes, yes, that's where the US sent all the Nazi's after WW2, because A) Nobody cared since it was Alabama. B) They'd fit right in with their bigotry. C) A Corrupt government that could be easily bribed.
Re: State of the art? (Score:2)
Alabama (Score:5, Funny)
Alabama is where the toothbrush was invented. If it had been anywhere else they'd have called it a teethbrush.
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It could just be that your joke wasn't funny.
Re:Averages (Score:4, Insightful)
Pretty much. An average salary of 75k means that you have a handful of people going home with 6 or even more figures and the rest working double shifts to make ends meet.
Creating jobs is meaningless when that job can't support a family. I don't need an occupation. I need money. I can keep myself occupied just fine, I need no "help" in that respect.
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Creating jobs is meaningless when that job can't support a family.
Not everyone looking for a job is a head of household.
Re:Averages (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm most likely way too late in this conversation to get this post viewed, but I'll try anyway...
I live in the Huntsville metropolitan area (nearby, and completely surrounded, Madison).
The cost of living here is *RIDICULOUSLY* cheap. You can easily get a 1,500 sq. ft. starter-house on a half-acre of land for $120,000. Food and other necessities are, likewise, a small fraction of the average Engineer's salary.
And that's almost all there is here! Engineers. If you meet somebody new, you just kinda assume that they're an Engineer. Mechanical, Electrical, Computer, Aerospace. They're everywhere.
I bought my first house in the area just six months after finishing college. Starting salaries in the $50k - $60k range will do you just fine. And advancement is trivial if you just do your job. Either you advance in your starting job, or you can easily job-hop to any of the other tech companies in the area. Change jobs every ~5 years, and (in combination with normal salary increases) you'll easily hit 6-figures around your 10-year-mark. And at that point, you're just starting to get silly. 4,000 sq. ft. houses for $350,000 are easily affordable at that point.
And I also need to mention that almost every tech company out here offers continuing-education incentives. My first company paid for my Master's, and all I had to do was agree to work for them for 2-years after graduating. No big deal.
Long story short, Huntsville is a wonderful place for Engineers of almost any sort. I highly recommend it.
P.S. If you're still in college, Huntsville has tons of internships and co-ops programs. Do it! Graduate with a year+ of real-world experience, and it's even easier to get a job. And that company with which you co-oped is almost certainly going to make you an offer. After all, they had a year-long interview with you. They know *exactly* whether they want you or not.
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I'm sure Jeff Bezos is a huge Trump supporter, given his ownership of the Washington Post and all. We all know the Post is such a HUGE fan of the Trump administration.
Let the Elon Musk haters begin the bashing!! (Score:2)
Oh, wait, it's the Bezos haters... well, same crowd - at least in mentality.
Re: Let the Elon Musk haters begin the bashing!! (Score:2)
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Also nice try. ;-) Not necessarily, but likely.
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To clarify (if there would be a misunderstanding about it): I'm not for or against Elon nor Bezos. I just find the haters and bashers equally worthless.
Both are not perfect, but have accomplished some things which they should get credit for. The mentality of the fanfappers and zealous fantrolls on both sides - reminiscent to the xbox vs PS - crave attention and flamewars more then anything else. And it's that which is similar with both crowds.
Just like with the xbox vs PS flamewars, after a while you begin
Fastest Growing Tech Town (Score:2)
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/b... [ziprecruiter.com]
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BE-4 (Score:2)
Makes sense, given that's where they built Apollo. (Score:2)
Given all the snide commentary I see in here it seems that people forgot that Huntsville Alabama is where built a substantial amount of the Apollo program. more to the point parts of the international space station. In fact I had the luxury of having a relative that was working there when they were building it. So I got to see them building the thing before they launched it. Also got to take a few rides through some of the old tests sites that are not open to the public myself. It's a sadly often forgo