A tour of Blue Origin’s Huntsville Machine Shop & Manufacturing Facility
Video below, which is heavily focused on machining and machine shop work. The facility, the Machine Shop & Manufacturing Facility in Huntsville, appears to build the BE-3U engine (to be used for the New Glenn upper stage), though I thought some of the engines shown could be BE-4’s. I hope my readers can help clarify this.
While this video actually reveals very little solid information, one important fact was disclosed near the end, when the tour reached the final engine assembly point. There the Blue Origin employee mentioned that they are assembling three engines at this facility. Considering facility’s size and the number of engines that will be needed once New Glenn begins flying, I was not impressed. Does it really take this much space and equipment to only build three rocket engines? Am I wrong?
Hat tip to reader John Harman, who is himself the owner of an aerospace manufacturing company.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
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The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Video below, which is heavily focused on machining and machine shop work. The facility, the Machine Shop & Manufacturing Facility in Huntsville, appears to build the BE-3U engine (to be used for the New Glenn upper stage), though I thought some of the engines shown could be BE-4’s. I hope my readers can help clarify this.
While this video actually reveals very little solid information, one important fact was disclosed near the end, when the tour reached the final engine assembly point. There the Blue Origin employee mentioned that they are assembling three engines at this facility. Considering facility’s size and the number of engines that will be needed once New Glenn begins flying, I was not impressed. Does it really take this much space and equipment to only build three rocket engines? Am I wrong?
Hat tip to reader John Harman, who is himself the owner of an aerospace manufacturing company.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Minor edit in penultimate paragraph: “assembling three engines ”
Andi: I am glad you haven’t gotten tired of doing this copyediting for me. Much appreciated. And fixed.
Re engine types- in the video, the employee mentions that the BE-3Us are tested in Huntsville, but others are sent to Texas for testing. That, plus that the signs I saw on the walls said BE-4, would seem to indicate that that model is built there too.
Sounds like they are desperate for machinists!
Bob, I guess it’s in my blood, having done it for so long. Hop you don’t find it too annoying! :)
Robert asked: “I was not impressed. Does it really take this much space and equipment to only build three rocket engines? Am I wrong?”
I saw it a bit differently. It sounds as though they are ramping up production. They are hiring a couple hundred more people. Will they hire even more by the end of next year?
They may have only three engines in various stages of manufacture, but how long does it take to build each engine? If it goes quickly, then they can already make several per year. If it takes a long time, then they need to ramp up much more. In the meantime, they do not need as many BE-3U upper stage engines as the booster engines, the BE-4.
They mentioned that there were pieces that were complicated to machine. This does not sound like a fast process or an inexpensive one. There may still be room for improvement. Robert may not be wrong to be less than impressed.
Is Blue working on those improvements? It is hard to say. They can ramp up on the current model but still work on the next version of the model. Raptor is working this way. Blue also is not pushing the limits, derating (test fails at “11” but instead of setting “10” as the rated amount, set it to “9”*) the maximums on the engine to assure that it does not fail in flight. There is something to be said for that, but if they are satisfied with what they have now, then they may be obsolete in a few years.
__________________
* Not to brag, but my home’s stove goes all the way to nine. There is “Off,” “Simmer,” “2” through “8,” and “High.” I keep wondering how much faster the water would boil if it went to eleven.
But they don’t launch.
Titan Gilroy, the owner of Titan CNC, is an amazing guy with a, shall we say unique, back story. I’d suggest to your readers to go through his YouTube pages and see the amazing work his guys are doing. In addition to building his business, one of his major goals is to get more people involved with machining and fabrication. He has actually built online courses, he calls it his academy – for FREE – to get anyone interested in CNC machining to a) learn and b) up their skills. I found him maybe six months ago and enjoy going down rabbit holes on his channels. I seriously recommend this. Thanks for posting.
My take (retired machinist/aircraft mechanic) is similar to Edward’s. Production rate per assembly station makes a big difference in total throughput. It also seems likely that more assembly stations can be set up when they have enough trained assemblers to run additional stations. It might be nice to fantasize about Willow Run style assembly lines, but I’m not sure the technology is developed enough to support that kind of production. I also don’t think man rated rocket motors could tolerate the failure rates accepted in Willow Run’s production B-24s.
I think the general sense in the industry is that BO has been taking too long to get engine production down to the Huntsville facility, where it really belongs.
But maybe the new boss, Dave Limp, can get things sped up. There are some promising signs, via the apparent ongoing purge of the Honeywell Mafia. I’m skpetical…but it would be good for Blue Origin (and everyone else) if he could actually make that happen.
BLUE = One of the richest men on planet earth’s company, dirt in Alabama is central to the industry and is cheap, Taxes relatively minimal, building some of the largest most precise and exotic material high performance devices with the largest and most precise CNC machines being produced, hiring 240 more machinists probably means they are adding 75 to 100 more machines(?), producing three gigantic very precise high performance products at the moment, and the future will only get bigger as space becomes more and more accessible and higher production will become needed.
500 thousand plus square feet sounds about right to me, the bigger the better.
With a facility like that you can easily make modifications and add special machines, storage, assembly etc. without disturbing ongoing production. Big, spacious, clean makes for happy employees and good workflow. It pays to essentially have unlimited funding, and I am certain the tax advantages have to be astronomical. Not to mention the employment numbers. What else do you do with that kind of money?
Just one more proof of concept “victory” for Lee S and Questioner and the power of Socialism and Marxist philosophy and a crushing rebuke of dirty filthy Capitalism.
The only potential fly in the ointment? Anti-gravity technology. And until that becomes real (100 years? Never?) investing heavily in this kind of gigantic facility is really the only way to go and get into space. It is the future.
BTW, Stephen Clark at Ars Technica has a new feature article on New Glenn’s progress, which BO continues to insist will enable it to have a launch in 2024.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/12/blue-origin-sure-seems-confident-it-will-launch-new-glenn-in-2024/
There is some modest discussion of the engine situation:
Over the next few months, Hoffman said Blue Origin plans to ramp up engine testing ahead of the debut launch of New Glenn. This will include firings of the methane-fueled BE-4 engine and the hydrogen-fueled BE-3U engine on a test stand in Alabama. Seven BE-4s will power the first stage of New Glenn, and two BE-3Us will be on the second stage.
Similar versions of both of these engines will be flight-proven by the time New Glenn finally takes off. The BE-3U is a different variant of the BE-3 engine used on Blue Origin’s suborbital New Shepard rocket, and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket will use two BE-4 engines from Blue Origin on each of its first stage boosters.
One of the most significant milestones leading up to the debut of New Glenn will be out of Blue Origin’s hands. Hoffman identified the first launch of ULA’s Vulcan rocket with its BE-4 engines, now planned for January, as one of the key events in the run-up to the maiden flight of New Glenn.
Titan Gilroy does have an interesting story. I believe the following summary is generally correct. He built a machine shop in CA where he manufactured components for ROVs until the financial meltdown of 2008. He lost most of his shop and then over the next 10 years he pivoted to aerospace, making components for SpaceX and Blue Origin. In 2020 the CA lockdowns hit and again pretty much put him out of business. This time he picked up shop and moved to TX, took all of his big machines and many employees along. However, in TX they don’t actually manufacture parts for clients (as far as I can tell). They make educational videos that teach machining and offer a certification program. It seems they make money by selling cutting tools and I believe they recently started actually selling machines. Machine tool manufacturers will loan them machines to do videos of to promote their machine tool brand. The cool thing is all their instructional video content is free. They actually show the step-by-step process of how to manufacture aerospace parts. Titans shop tours aren’t terribly information dense, but they do show some amazing shops that otherwise are hidden behind the façade of non-descript buildings and off-limits to the public.
I suspect that Blue Origin invited Titan just to attract machinists. He has a huge audience of very skilled machinists and manufacturing professionals. That they opened their doors to him indicates they’re having trouble finding the skilled workers required to execute their growth plans and had to open their doors to attract talent.
J. Harman, are you sure Titan CNC is only doing their Academy? I think they’re still manufacturing for Space X and BO. (I could be wrong…) They can’t have their facility with their machines *only* for teaching even if some are on loan, which itself doesn’t make sense. That’s a whole lot of capital investment for free content.
It looks like they want to do as much as possible in house.
Thats a great idea if they can keep it flexible and productive.
Its looks like they are planning for massive expansion to their present production.
Over all it looks like way more machining that is needed. Way to precise. All of the parts over engineered, and not in a good way. Just way to many parts and steps for a functional system.
They need to find a way to quicken things up by dropping the amount of machining steps.
For those who know guns. They need to make it more AK and less H&K.
Andi: I am never annoyed by someone correcting my mistakes. Makes my work better.
Why so much room is needed?
You want to install the newest high tech and relatively large (And this is not among the largest) CNC machine while your shop is still in operation?
https://youtu.be/TL9vyCpNs2g?si=8gdf39SMJLc1REgV 1:45
You need lots of money and space (no pun intended).
Grantman – I could also be wrong, I thought they’d pivoted completely to education but I can’t find a definitive answer anywhere. They do have a store where they sell cutting tools and equipment and recently seem to have become a dealer for DN Solutions (formerly Doosan) machine tools. It would be interesting to know for sure if they’ve completely pivoted to education and marketing or if they still have an income stream from component manufacturing.
Grantman-
totally off-topic;
…looked at your site, beautiful stuff!!
What did you use to make this?
https://grantmanwoodworks.com/bimah/
The engines in the final assembly area (starting ~ 18:25) are BE-4s.