Blue Origin Is Planning To Open New Launch Sites Outside the US (engadget.com) 31
According to the Financial Times, Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin has announced plans to expand its operations to "Europe and beyond." Engadget reports: Part of this growth hinges on finding a site for an international launch facility -- the company has already put down roots in Texas, Washington, Florida and Alabama -- but the new location hasn't been chosen yet. It's also actively looking for fresh acquisitions and partnerships outside of the US in areas such as manufacturing and software.
Though Blue Origin was the first to launch, land and reuse a rocket successfully, it has fallen behind its rival due to hold-ups with building its launchers. Blue Origin's plans for a more global footprint might help them catch up with SpaceX's progress. Amazon's Project Kuiper also plans to use Blue Origin's rocket New Glenn for at least 12 launches between 2024 and 2029 after a few years of delays. "We're looking for anything we can do to acquire, to scale up to better serve our customers," Bob Smith, Blue Origin CEO, said. "It's not a function of size -- rather how much it accelerates our road map of what we're trying to get done."
Though Blue Origin was the first to launch, land and reuse a rocket successfully, it has fallen behind its rival due to hold-ups with building its launchers. Blue Origin's plans for a more global footprint might help them catch up with SpaceX's progress. Amazon's Project Kuiper also plans to use Blue Origin's rocket New Glenn for at least 12 launches between 2024 and 2029 after a few years of delays. "We're looking for anything we can do to acquire, to scale up to better serve our customers," Bob Smith, Blue Origin CEO, said. "It's not a function of size -- rather how much it accelerates our road map of what we're trying to get done."
Never reached orbit (Score:4, Informative)
Blue Origin have yet to launch anything into orbit they are still at the what goes up must come down stage.
Kazakhstan (Score:2, Funny)
They could launch tourists from Kazakhstan :)
Re: Kazakhstan (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Blue Origin have yet to launch anything into orbit they are still at the what goes up must come down stage.
Well, as the old saying goes, there is no place like home. Planet Earth is Blue Origin's home and they want to stay at home. What's wrong with that?
EU is out of the question (Score:3)
The environmental regulations are so strict that you can't do anything anymore in the EU, let alone shoot tourists for fun into the air.
Re:EU is out of the question (Score:4, Interesting)
The environmental regulations are so strict that you can't do anything anymore in the EU, let alone shoot tourists for fun into the air.
Ariane rockets are launched from French Guiana. Europe is too far north for launches. Are EU regulations for places outside of Europe the same as for European soil?
Re: (Score:2)
Russians seem to manage with Baikonur which is about the same latitude as Lyon, plenty of places in the EU that are closer to the equator than that, including ones where the launch path would be over water.
Re: (Score:2)
The environmental regulations are so strict that you can't do anything anymore in the EU, let alone shoot tourists for fun into the air.
Ariane rockets are launched from French Guiana. Europe is too far north for launches. Are EU regulations for places outside of Europe the same as for European soil?
Most of Europe is indeed too far north to efficiently (delta-V wise) launch GEO or GTO payloads, but it's certainly fine for other thinks like polar, LEO, and other non-stationary orbits. The problem is that Ariane 5 has one more luanch and it's done. Ariane 6 is still in the normal Europe little-country discussions where everyone wants to change the recipe of the soup, so they haven't even settled on whether it will be resuable, partially reusable, or just bigger than the previous fails. Expect no launc
Try launching a satellite first (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
I would hazard a guess that they are looing to Europe to avoid competition with SpaceX. By launching in Europe they can offer services that for whatever reason need to launched from European soil.
Re:Try launching a satellite first (Score:5, Informative)
It's cheaper in French Guiana due to the Earth's tangential speed there. Nothing to do with politics.
Re: (Score:3)
There is no contradiction; French Guyana is EU soil (see the list of Outermost Regions of the EU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ). Blue Origin could set up business for EU customers from French Guyana (Kourou 5N); or from the Canary Islands (Tenerife 28N) at the same latitude as their current installations of Cape Canaveral.
Re: (Score:3)
It's also about the whole not having to launch over populated areas thing. They picked on launch site that lets them hit GEO, Polar, etc from one spot.
Re: (Score:2)
French Guiana is European, as in EU, soil.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah, the old Internet tactic of defining words (and how possessives work in English) so that you're right.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
They're already avoiding competing with SpaceX... they're not competing with anyone.
Maybe their plan is to get into the launch site business? Sad to wind up as a glorified realtor and land squatter
New sites to launch their little hopper? (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Call me when they launch to orbit from ... anywhere.
^ THIS ^
Blue Origin has proven they can get their little hopper off the ground more than once and into near-Earth space above the von Karman line...
...but Blue Origin has yet to prove they can do anything truly challenging like delivering a payload to the ISS or placing a satellite into a geosync'd Earth orbit.
After all, how much business will there truly be in space tourism ? Just ask the folks over at Virgin.
Its the Just In Time model in action (Score:2)
Like just about every other company, they will wait until the day before the concrete sets on the launchpad before thinking about getting some rockets to launch from it, then be totally surprised that the rockets cannot be designed, built and flown on the same day.
Re: (Score:1)
It looks like a giant... (Score:3, Funny)
Something tells me he's looking for a remote, hollowed out volcano on an uninhabited island to launch his rockets from. Mwahahaha!
Where in Europe? (Score:2)
I mean, maybe polar from somewhere on the Norwegian coast?
Not sure there is a spot for going to GEO type orbits - you gonna try to launch from the east cost of Spain and drop things in the Mediterranean?
Can't see the point for there tourist flights - if the folks can afford the launch, they can afford to fly to the US for those.
Kuiper will never catch SpaceX (Score:5, Insightful)
SpaceX has averaged more than one launch per week over the past two years. That is why Amazon has been trying to win in the courts, since they certainly can't win from the launchpad.
ITAR would like to have a say in that. (Score:2)
New Sheppard probably won't fall under ITAR as it's strictly a suborbital launch vehicle. New Glenn will fall under ITAR export restriction.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm fairly sure ITAR restrictions apply irrespective of orbital capability, ICBMs are suborbital and ITAR covers lots of short range rocket tech as well.
Disney Paris needs new rides (Score:2)
This would be perfect.