
Published by The Wall Street Journal, 9 August 2023
Near an empty Florida beach, Jeff Bezos’ space company built a launchpad designed to withstand the flames and roar of powerful rocket engines at liftoff. There is hardly a scratch on it.
Many in the space industry view Bezos’ Blue Origin as a counterbalance to Elon Musk-led SpaceX, which has become virtually a monopoly in the rocket-launch market. They also wonder why Blue Origin isn’t further along. The company hasn’t yet made it to orbit, but is starting to close in on such a mission, producing huge metal sections and components for its fleet of New Glenn orbital rockets in a cavernous factory near the launchpad.
The company, based outside of Seattle, has spread its bets over several businesses, including an engine division and a suborbital space-tourism unit. Along the way, it has built a backlog of orders that stands close to $10 billion. It has almost 11,000 employees, some working on projects aimed at fostering long-term exploration efforts, such as making solar cells out of moon rocks and dust.
Launching New Glenn from the rugged-but-unused pad on Cape
See: Original Article
