Jeff Bezos

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos stands beside a rocket engine nozzle skirt during the first tour of his private space company Blue Origin's headquarters and plant outside Seattle, Wash., on March 8, 2016. (Lee Roop/lroop@al.com)

Alabama could be the site of rocket builder Blue Origin's new engine plant, company officials confirmed this week. The confirmation came during the first ever tour of the once-secretive company's main factory near Seattle.

"We're talking to your congressional delegation," one Blue Origin executive told AL.com during the tour. The discussion presumably includes what incentives Alabama might offer Blue Origin and how lawmakers could help.

The new engine will be the much-awaited replacement for the Russian RD-180 engine that lifts United Launch Alliance rockets and their top secret military satellites today. Congress wants America out of the role of Russia's customer, and it is pressuring ULA to get a new engine.

ULA builds its rockets in Decatur, Ala., and that will be where it builds a new Vulcan rocket under development. Blue Origin has the prime contract to power Vulcan with its BE-4 engine, but ULA has a backup plan involving Aeroject Rocketdyne if Blue Origin fails to deliver.

A main reason for Blue Origin's decision to open its plant to aerospace reporters this week was showing its progress on the BE-4. The tour's only press handout featured the engine, and there were demonstrations of BE-4 hardware.

The first BE-4s will be built in the Washington plant, but eventually Blue Origin wants a new facility. Putting it in Alabama near ULA would have advantages, managers said.

Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos talked about what the company looks for in an expansion site during a Q&A with reporters.

"The biggest factor there is talented workforce, that you can really hire people who understand the quality demands of aerospace," Bezos said. "You really want to be able to get good assembly and integration engineers, you want to be able to get high quality machinists and machine operators and those jobs today are very sophisticated jobs."

"You want to go some place that's welcoming, that actually wants the company," Bezos added. "Those are probably the two biggest things."