Blue Origin Rocket Site, Texas

One of the few privately-owned space launch facilities in the USA, this remote location was purchased in the mid-2000s by Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, in order to test designs produced by Blue Origins, the rocket company he founded in Kent, Washington, in 2000. Launch facilities here were built in four areas, connected by roads: an assembly area at the south end; a rocket engine test area on the east end; the launch site in the middle; and the rocket return landing area on the north end.  Elsewhere in Texas, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a rocket test site outside Waco, and is building a launch site near Brownsville.