Blue Origin plans to build and launch a 30-story satellite booster from Florida by the end of the decade. In an email to the company's followers and the media, tech pioneer and entrepreneur Jeff Bezos says that the launcher is a very significant step towards realizing the company's vision of millions of people living and working in space.
Space Florida, a state-owned economic development agency which arranges commercial agreements to take over disused facilities on the space coast has leased Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The New Glenn rocket, which will have a two-stage and three-stage configurations, will blast off at the rented facility. The booster has been named in honor of Mercury astronaut John Glenn who was the first American to reach the earth's orbit.
Earlier this year, Blue Origin's rocket factory, which is just outside the security gate of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, has been undergoing large-scale development. Currently, workers are excavating the site to establish the foundation of the sprawling new facility.
At Complex 36, Bezos's company intends to build a launch pad on the spot which formerly served as a base for 145 Atlas launches from 1962 to 2005. Blue Origin also wants to construct at adjoining Complex 11 on Cape Canaveral's missile row which last hosted a space launch in 1964.
The New Glenn is lifted off with 3.85 million pounds of push from seven BE-4 motors which burn melted regular gas and liquid oxygen. This type of machine has been used for the United Launch Alliance's new Vulcan rocket. The two-stage rocket, which will be fueled by a single vacuum-advanced BE-4 motor, is 270 feet tall. The three-stage rocket, which is 313 feet tall, will be controlled by a single vacuum-upgraded BE-3 engine with smoldering fluid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.
As a reference, today's most powerful rockets flying is the United Alliance's Delta IV Heavy which produces around 2 million pounds of thrust during launching.
Like Blue Origin's New Shepard, which is named for Alan Shepard, the first American in space, the New Glenn will also have a reusable first stage which will allow the company to launch multiple missions in the future.