U.S. Space Force awards $78M contract to Kent-based Blue Origin

U.S. Space Force has awarded a $78.25 million contract to Kent-based Blue Origin to expand space vehicle processing capacity by 2028 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

“We are proud to work with the U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command to construct a new payload processing facility supporting multiple launch vehicle providers on Florida’s Space Coast,” according to a Blue Origin spokesperson in an Oct. 7 email. “This partnership will enhance Blue Origin’s capabilities to operate more efficiently and expand our capacity to support a higher launch cadence to meet customer needs.”

California-based U.S. Space Force announced the contract in a Tuesday, Oct. 7 news release.

“This second CSO (commercial solutions opening) award reflects our continued commitment to meet both national security and commercial launch requirements,” said U.S. Space Force Col. Dan Highlander, director of Operations Integration for Space System Command’s Assured Access to Space directorate. “The public-private partnership behind the new capacity enables us to cost-share with commercial industry to our mutual benefit.”

Lockheed Martin’s Astrotech Space Operations subsidiary received a $77.5 million contract in April for similar work at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

According to spacenews.com, “while the range and launch pads at the Florida spaceport can support more flights, the facilities where satellites are processed and readied for flight have struggled to keep up. These cleanroom environments are where payloads undergo final testing, fueling and integration before being encapsulated atop rockets.”

Blue Origin operates Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral, where it launched its New Glenn rocket initial flight in January, and is preparing for the second launch. According to spacenews.com, the facility includes a massive integration building and processing areas for both rockets and payloads.

This is the second federal government contract in the last month awarded to Blue Origin, which is owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and opened in Kent in 2000. NASA awarded an $190 million contract in September to the company to land a science rover on the moon’s South Pole region by late 2027.

The U.S. Space Force was established in 2019 after widespread recognition that space is a national security imperative, according to the U.S. Space Force website.