Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin Wins Major Rocket Engine Contract

(RTTNews) - Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos' space startup Blue Origin has won a major contract to provide engines for a new rocket being designed by United Launch Alliance or ULA.

United Launch Alliance is a venture co-owned by U.S. government contractors Boeing Co. (BA) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) to launch high-priority national security satellites for the U.S. government.

Under the contract with ULA, Blue Origin's BE-4 engines will power the booster stage of ULA's new Vulcan Centaur rockets. The liquefied natural gas or LNG fueled booster will be powered by a pair of BE-4 engines, each producing 550,000 pounds of sea level thrust.

"We are very glad to have our BE-4 engine selected by United Launch Alliance. United Launch Alliance is the premier launch service provider for national security missions, and we're thrilled to be part of their team and that mission," said Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith.

The Vulcan Centaur rockets, intended to replace ULA's current fleet of Atlas V and Delta IV launchers, is on track for its initial flight in mid-2020.

So far, ULA was relying on Russian built RD-180 engines to power its Atlas V rockets into orbit. The BE-4 engine is seen as a domestic alternative to the RD-180.

Vulcan Centaur will have a maximum liftoff thrust of 3.8 million pounds and carry 56,000 pounds to low Earth orbit, 33,000 pounds to a geo-transfer orbit, and 16,000 pounds to geostationary orbit.

Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings (AJRD) had also competed for the ULA engine contract with its Aeroject engine, called the AR1. However, ULA has already selected Aerojet Rocketdyne's RL10 engine for the Centaur's upper stage.

Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000. The company began developing the BE-4 rocket engine in 2011. The BE-4 will also power Blue Origin's own heavy-lift rocket, called New Glenn.

Blue Origin will now go ahead with its plan to open a massive rocket engine manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Alabama.

In July 2017, the company said it would build a 200,000 square foot plant that will employ up to 400 new manufacturing jobs if it won the ULA contract.