Blue Origin Opens New Factory for Production of BE=4 and BE-3U Engines

Aerospace and Defense Review | Monday, February 24, 2020

Although the structure is complete, the company will take some time before it starts production at the facility. Employees are expected to move into the new construction within the week, while tooling and other equipment are expected to arrive in the coming weeks

Fremont, CA: Jeff Bezos owned Blue Origin opened a new factory in Huntsville, Alabama, which it will use to build engines for its vehicles as well as United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. The formal inauguration of the 35,000 square foot factory was marked with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The company plans to produce the BE-4 and BE-3U engines at the facility, which was constructed in little more than a year. The factory will house over 300 employees and is expected to produce up to 42 engines every year.

“You can see we can get some things done really quickly,” said Bob Smith, chief executive of Blue Origin. “Twelve months to actually build this kind of facility is an amazing accomplishment for our team.” Although the structure is complete, the company will take some time before it starts production at the facility. Employees are expected to move into the new construction within the week, while tooling and other equipment are expected to arrive in the coming weeks. Blue Origin expects the facility will be operational and ready to build BE-4engines by this summer, initiating with a site certification engine that will be fired at both Blue Origin’s West Texas testing site and a test stand at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center which the company is currently refurbishing.

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Currently, the company is building BE-4 engines at its headquarters in Kent, Washington. The ongoing project at Kent includes a series of engines used in testing and two flight readiness engines, which will be delivered to the United Launch Alliance for integration with the Vulcan rocket or testing. The transition of engine production from Kent to Huntsville will be completed over the next couple of years. Once the BE-4 production line is stabilized at the Huntsville facility, the staff for the new facility will be trained at the Kent-based headquarters and then returned to ramp up the engine production at Huntsville. The company looks to achieve a balance between the output of BE-4 and BE-3U engines that will be used to power the upper stages of the New Glenn Rocket. Blue Origin believes it will be at least 3 to 4 years before the production line is stabilized and actual production targets are met.

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