Blue Origin opens (secretly) its first foreign office, in Luxembourg
Blue Origin last week opened its first office in another country, in Luxembourg, though the company made no official announcement and the fact only became public when a Luxembourg official mentioned it at a conference in Colorado.
In an unexpected twist, the opening of the European HQ was eventually announced on 15 April 2026, not by the company but by Luxembourg Economy Minister Lex Delles – and not at the Grand Duchy office, but on his visit to the 41st annual Space Symposium, held in Colorado Springs in the US.
Blue Origin’s office on the capital’s Avenue de la Liberté had, in fact, opened right on schedule, Tim Collins, the company’s Vice- President of Global Operations and Supply Chain, told the Luxembourg Times in interview on Wednesday.
…Asked why Blue Origin declined to confirm its opening schedule until April, despite media follow-up requests, Collins said there was no cover-up: the company merely wanted to have something to show off before officially opening. The process has been roughly on schedule throughout, he stressed.
The office will work with Blue Origin’s European customers as well as manage its foreign supply chain, not just in European but globally.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
Blue Origin last week opened its first office in another country, in Luxembourg, though the company made no official announcement and the fact only became public when a Luxembourg official mentioned it at a conference in Colorado.
In an unexpected twist, the opening of the European HQ was eventually announced on 15 April 2026, not by the company but by Luxembourg Economy Minister Lex Delles – and not at the Grand Duchy office, but on his visit to the 41st annual Space Symposium, held in Colorado Springs in the US.
Blue Origin’s office on the capital’s Avenue de la Liberté had, in fact, opened right on schedule, Tim Collins, the company’s Vice- President of Global Operations and Supply Chain, told the Luxembourg Times in interview on Wednesday.
…Asked why Blue Origin declined to confirm its opening schedule until April, despite media follow-up requests, Collins said there was no cover-up: the company merely wanted to have something to show off before officially opening. The process has been roughly on schedule throughout, he stressed.
The office will work with Blue Origin’s European customers as well as manage its foreign supply chain, not just in European but globally.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
Some places require a company have a local address in order to do business. Europe might be one of those.
But seriously they have over 15 employees in a remote office? Almost all of the work could be done over the internet.
Exactly how many customers could they have? A dozen?
Embassies aren’t just for blowhard ambassadors banging on tables—they handle spies.
The private world does that too.
Bezos reads things like this:
https://phys.org/news/2026-04-artemis-ii-celebrated-world-hard.html
So he, being an internationalist of course, is trying to blunt any damage the folks across the pond get up to.
15 is about the number I would hire too. A few ladies-of-the-evening (high-end) whose toys contain thumb-drives and listening devices of course….a couple of detectives, a photographer, a dealer, a fixer…a bagman.
–the usual
Bernie Madoff was a “chester” type caught in a honey-trap—but that guy was even more stingy than Epstein or Bernie either one:
“Hey kid! Easy on the candy!”
This is Blue Origin showing the world that, yes, it CAN build something on-schedule.
pzatchok wrote: “Some places require a company have a local address in order to do business. Europe might be one of those.”
Maybe, but Luxembourg made a big deal, a decade ago, about being very helpful to any space company that merely did business in that country. Opening an office counts. No espionage necessary, and probably detrimental.
The article linked above is, to quote a pithy comment in response to it, “… really tedious hand wringing politics, not science.”
In-depth summary: “Orange man bad for space! Euros must clutch pearls harder!”
If that’s what it takes to get them motivated, so be it.
I never did understand what Zubrin accomplished playing house on Devon Island.
That money could have went to a honey trap for space advocates.
He wasn’t vicious enough.
Bezos knows there is old money in Europe…and he is going to promote Orange Man Bad, Orange Rocket Bad… whatever it takes to get someone else to pay for space.
There is a trick some in hip-hop use so they won’t be bled dry by their crew…as has happened to running backs in the NFL because they all go Gary Busey after a few hits.
The singer has the crew talk to his own version of Bob Smith…so he can be the bad guy instead.
An old trick.
Jeff W @ 12:15pm-
Yes, “the usual”! Good one.
Although I would have put the hires at about 1 – i.e. approximately (+/- two) the number of Euro spaceports launching their own rockets from the Continent (excluding Russian ports of course).
By comparison, there’s this way of doing things related to space:
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2026/04/25/the-libranos-to-boldly-launder/
Each day, lately, there’s another item about it either in the news or on social media.