Blue Origin is planning to open new launch sites outside the US<p>The billionaire space race is continuing to expand across the globe. Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin has announced plans to expand its operations to "Europe and beyond," <a data-i13n="cpos:1;pos:1" href="
https://www.ft.com/content/886d8638-8f38-404f-882c-50e358c5509c">the
Financial Times reports[/url]. Part of this growth hinges on finding a site for an international launch facility — the company has already put down roots in Texas, Washington, Florida and Alabama — but the new location hasn't been chosen yet. It's also actively looking for fresh acquisitions and partnerships outside of the US in areas such as manufacturing and software.</p><p>"We're looking for anything we can do to acquire, to scale up to better serve our customers," Bob Smith, Blue Origin CEO, said. "It's not a function of size — rather how much it accelerates our road map of what we're trying to get done." Last year, <a data-i13n="cpos:2;pos:1" href="
https://www.honeybeerobotics.com/news-events/honeybee-robotics-to-join-blue-origin/">Blue Origins bought New York-based Honeybee Robotics[/url], a move that appears successful: The space-based robotics company was part of the Blue Origin team that recently received <a data-i13n="cpos:3;pos:1" href="
https://www.engadget.com/nasa-picks-blue-origin-to-build-the-artemis-v-moon-landing-system-145503244.html">$3.4 billion to build the lunar lander[/url] for NASA's third Artemis mission. Blue Origin's biggest competitor, Elon Musk's SpaceX, is handling the <a data-i13n="cpos:4;pos:1" href="
https://www.engadget.com/nasa-picks-blue-origin-to-build-the-artemis-v-moon-landing-system-145503244.html">first and second Artemis moon landings[/url].</p><span id="end-legacy-contents"></span><p>Though Blue Origin was the first to launch, land and reuse a rocket successfully, it has fallen behind its rival due to hold-ups with building its launchers. Blue Origin's plans for a more global footprint might help them catch up with SpaceX's progress. Amazon's Project Kuiper also plans to use <a data-i13n="cpos:5;pos:1" href="
https://www.engadget.com/nasa-blue-origin-new-glenn-escapade-science-mission-mars-110049165.html">Blue Origin's rocket New Glenn[/url] for at least 12 launches between 2024 and 2029 after a few years of delays.</p>This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/blue-origin-is-planning-to-open-new-launch-sites-outside-the-us-122518232.html?src=rssSource:
Blue Origin is planning to open new launch sites outside the US