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Space United States Businesses Politics Technology

Blue Origin To Build Its BE-4 Rocket Engine In Alabama, Creating Hundreds of Jobs (theverge.com) 53

Posted by BeauHD from the American-made dept.
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."
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Blue Origin To Build Its BE-4 Rocket Engine In Alabama, Creating Hundreds of Jobs More

Blue Origin To Build Its BE-4 Rocket Engine In Alabama, Creating Hundreds of Jobs

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  • Why does TFS mention POLITICS three times without explaining (no, I'm not reading TFA)?
    • Because politics is everything when trying to sell stuff to the government, especially on Emperor Shelbatine's territory.
    • Politics seems to just be a generic buzz word for anything non technical being used to deciding something. In this case it probably means tax credits, or perhaps just keeping NASA happy in keeping jobs in that area in a hope they can influence ULAs decision. Somehow locating yourself in the same area as a potential client is considered politics.
    • It's been long-standing policy to spread NASA projects around the country to spread the pork around to ensure Congressional support. In this case, gotta keep those rednecks and NAZIs employed.

    • 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?

      Because Huntsville’s economy is so wrapped up in aerospace, Alabama’s lawmakers want to keep it that way, and a few of them are

    • 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)

    by Anonymous Coward

    State of the art in Alabama? That means not making them from wood.

  • Alabama (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hognoxious ( 631665 ) on Wednesday June 28, 2017 @05:27AM (#54703547) Homepage Journal

    Alabama is where the toothbrush was invented. If it had been anywhere else they'd have called it a teethbrush.

  • Oh, wait, it's the Bezos haters... well, same crowd - at least in mentality.

    • Nice try but no, not necessarily.

      • Also nice try. ;-) Not necessarily, but likely.

      • 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

  • 'Before' what, precisely? What are they planning? X-)

  • 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

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