Proposed Florida Budget Includes $17 Million for Blue Origin Launch Complex
Brig. Gen. Steven Garland, 14th Air Force vice commander, left, provides remarks at a Blue Origin media event held at Space Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, Sept 15, 2015. (Credit: USAF/Matthew Jurgens)
Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin would receive $17 million in assistance from Florida taxpayers to renovate a dormant Cape Canaveral launch complex under Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed 2017-18 budget.
The governor’s office said the budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year starting July 1 includes $34 million for launch complex improvements that “will help attract more commercial activity to the area.”
Space Florida confirmed the total includes $17 million from the Florida Department of Transportation to help prepare Launch Complex 36, a state-run pad last used in 2005, into a site for Blue Origin’s giant New Glenn orbital rockets. The company also plans to build an engine test stand, incorporating the adjacent Launch Complex 11.
Blue Origin, the private space firm started by Amazon.com’s billionaire founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, will match the state’s investment, resulting in the $34 million budget figure cited by the state.
Bezos and Scott in September 2015 visited Launch Complex 36 to announce Blue Origin’s plans to build and launch rockets locally.
“The pad has stood silent for more than 10 years — too long,” Bezos said then. “We can’t wait to fix that.”
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2 responses to “Proposed Florida Budget Includes $17 Million for Blue Origin Launch Complex”
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Now we know how billionaires become billionaires. There’s nothing like dipping into the pockets of the taxpayers for your venture capital. That said, it’s the real world, the world and history is rife with the taxpayers being a source for venture capital. Perhaps in discussions of the proper role of government in regulating business the nature and amount of taxpayer contributions might come into play in guiding the discussion. A nation with a more advanced model of government and regulatory regime might be able to scale it’s regulatory power based on what public resources a business uses both indirectly and directly.
I don’t mind my tax dollars going for this.