Blue Origin plans new Florida launch pads, asks FAA to allow 50 launches a year
Recovering from a test-stand explosion in May, Jeff Bezos' rocket company is adding pads, two landing ships and a $330 million factory expansion to fly New Glenn far more often.
Archive image · Photo: U.S. Space Force photo by Senior Airman Samuel Becker / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
Blue Origin plans to build additional launch pads on Florida's Space Coast for its New Glenn heavy-lift rocket, aiming to support "multiple flights per week by the end of the decade," Senior Vice President of Operations Ian Richardson said, according to Spaceflight Now. The company did not say where the new pads would be. It has asked the Federal Aviation Administration to raise the number of permitted launches from its LC-36A complex from 12 to 50 a year; a virtual public hearing is set for Oct. 22.
The plans include two new landing vessels for reusable first-stage boosters, a facility to service returned boosters and a payload processing facility built with U.S. Space Force support. Blue Origin will also spend $330 million expanding its Florida factory, which is due to be completed by summer 2027 and could produce up to 150 upper stages a year for the larger New Glenn 9x4 variant.
The company is still recovering from a catastrophic explosion during a static test fire in May, and the LC-36A pad is being rebuilt. Founder Jeff Bezos said earlier this month that Blue Origin still aims to fly New Glenn again before the end of 2026. Richardson said Blue Origin has invested more than $3 billion in Florida, with more than 5,000 employees and 500 Florida suppliers supporting the work.