Slashdot Mirror
Blue Origin To Build Its BE-4 Rocket Engine In Alabama, Creating Hundreds of Jobs (theverge.com)
Blue Origin has recently announced its plans to manufacture the company's new rocket engine, the BE-4, at a state-of-the-art facility in Huntsville, Alabama. According to The Verge, the benefits for Blue Origin are both practical and political. From the report: On the surface, it's a seemingly innocuous decision meant to capitalize on Huntsville's decades-long history of rocket development. The city is home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, where the Saturn V rocket was developed and where NASA's future massive deep-space rocket, the Space Launch System, will also be worked on. Plus, many private space contractors are based in Huntsville, making spaceflight a key part of the city's economy and a huge jobs creator. It's why Huntsville has been nicknamed Rocket City. But the move is most likely motivated by politics as well, given Blue Origin's plans for the BE-4. The company ultimately hopes to use seven BE-4 engines to power its future massive rocket called the New Glenn, which is supposed to launch sometime before 2020. But that's not the only rocket that the BE-4 could fly on. The United Launch Alliance -- a company responsible for launching most of the satellites for the U.S. military -- is developing a new rocket called Vulcan, and it needs new U.S.-made engines for the vehicle. Blue Origin's move to Huntsville will supposedly generate 342 jobs at the new facility, with salaries averaging $75,000, reports The Verge. Given the city's history, the company should have no problem finding aerospace experts in the area. The only problem that could arise would be if ULA doesn't select the BE-4 as the Vulcan's main engine. "ULA is also considering a second option in case the BE-4 doesn't work out: an engine being developed by longtime manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne called the AR-1," reports The Verge. "Aerojet is only meant to be Plan B for ULA. But it has one advantage that Blue Origin didn't have until now: it's building its engine in Huntsville, Alabama -- and that comes with some very key political protection."
Alabama is where the toothbrush was invented. If it had been anywhere else they'd have called it a teethbrush.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I'm most likely way too late in this conversation to get this post viewed, but I'll try anyway...
I live in the Huntsville metropolitan area (nearby, and completely surrounded, Madison).
The cost of living here is *RIDICULOUSLY* cheap. You can easily get a 1,500 sq. ft. starter-house on a half-acre of land for $120,000. Food and other necessities are, likewise, a small fraction of the average Engineer's salary.
And that's almost all there is here! Engineers. If you meet somebody new, you just kinda assume that they're an Engineer. Mechanical, Electrical, Computer, Aerospace. They're everywhere.
I bought my first house in the area just six months after finishing college. Starting salaries in the $50k - $60k range will do you just fine. And advancement is trivial if you just do your job. Either you advance in your starting job, or you can easily job-hop to any of the other tech companies in the area. Change jobs every ~5 years, and (in combination with normal salary increases) you'll easily hit 6-figures around your 10-year-mark. And at that point, you're just starting to get silly. 4,000 sq. ft. houses for $350,000 are easily affordable at that point.
And I also need to mention that almost every tech company out here offers continuing-education incentives. My first company paid for my Master's, and all I had to do was agree to work for them for 2-years after graduating. No big deal.
Long story short, Huntsville is a wonderful place for Engineers of almost any sort. I highly recommend it.
P.S. If you're still in college, Huntsville has tons of internships and co-ops programs. Do it! Graduate with a year+ of real-world experience, and it's even easier to get a job. And that company with which you co-oped is almost certainly going to make you an offer. After all, they had a year-long interview with you. They know *exactly* whether they want you or not.