Blue Origin plans to launch new launches outside of the US
The billionaire race for space continues to spread across the globe. The Financial Times reported that Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin announced plans to expand operations into \”Europe and beyond\”. The company’s growth is dependent on finding the right location for an international launch center. They have already established themselves in Texas, Washington and Florida, but they still need to choose a new site. The company is also actively seeking new partnerships and acquisitions outside the US, in areas like manufacturing and software.
Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin, stated that the company was looking to scale up and acquire new companies to better serve its customers. It’s not about size, but rather how it speeds up our roadmap of what we are trying to accomplish. Last year, Blue Origins purchased New York-based Honeybee Robotics. This move appears to have been successful. The space-based robots company was a part of the Blue Origins team that received $3.4 billion for NASA’s Artemis 3 mission to build the lunar landing lander. Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, Blue Origin’s main competitor, has been responsible for both the first and second Artemis lunar landings.
Blue Origin, despite being the first company to successfully launch, land, and reuse a spacecraft, has fallen behind SpaceX due to delays in building launchers. Blue Origin’s plan to have a global footprint could help them catch up to SpaceX’s advancement. Amazon’s Project Kuiper plans to also use Blue Origin’s rocket New Glenn between 2024-2029, after several years of delays.
Source:
https://www.engadget.com/blue-origin-is-planning-to-open-new-launch-sites-outside-the-us-122518232.html
