Blue Origin announced a major expansion of its Florida launch infrastructure on Friday, adding two new launch pads for the New Glenn rocket, a manufacturing facility capable of producing up to 150 upper stages, two additional landing ships, and a payload processing center built with the US Space Force. The company says it has invested about $3 billion in Florida so far and now employs more than 5,000 people there, with 500 suppliers in the state.
The expansion is designed to support multiple flights per week by the end of the decade, according to Ian Richardson, Blue Origin's senior vice president of operations. It comes as SpaceX pulls back from the commercial launch market with its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles, creating an opening for medium- and heavy-lift rockets. Blue Origin has reached orbit only twice, but the scale of this investment suggests founder Jeff Bezos is serious about competing for that demand.
The announcement follows a setback in late May, when a problem with a BE-4 engine caused the loss of a New Glenn rocket and its only launch site, LC-36A. Blue Origin is rebuilding that pad and targeting a return to flight before the end of 2026, though Ars Technica reports early 2027 is more likely. The new pads are likely intended for the larger 9x4 variant of New Glenn, which could be needed for NASA's Artemis lunar lander missions.