Discussion
Quite a few key people have been leaving Blue Origin recently it seems. Their lame anti-SpaceX postings being the last straw for some apparently.
"At least 16 key leaders and senior engineers have left Blue Origin this summer, CNBC has learned, with many moving on in the weeks after Bezos’ spaceflight.
Two of the engineers, Nitin Arora and Lauren Lyons, this week announced jobs at other space companies: Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Firefly Aerospace, respectively. Others quietly updated their LinkedIn pages over the past few weeks.
Those who announced they were leaving Blue Origin did not specify why, but frustration with executive management and a slow, bureaucratic structure is often cited in employee reviews on job site Glassdoor."
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/20/jeff-bezos-blue-or...
"At least 16 key leaders and senior engineers have left Blue Origin this summer, CNBC has learned, with many moving on in the weeks after Bezos’ spaceflight.
Two of the engineers, Nitin Arora and Lauren Lyons, this week announced jobs at other space companies: Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Firefly Aerospace, respectively. Others quietly updated their LinkedIn pages over the past few weeks.
Those who announced they were leaving Blue Origin did not specify why, but frustration with executive management and a slow, bureaucratic structure is often cited in employee reviews on job site Glassdoor."
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/20/jeff-bezos-blue-or...
Stussy said:
If Elon and others really do claim they want to get back to the moon and Mars for the greater good, then why don’t they all just work together and be done with it.
It would certainly solve funding problems if nothing else
Because that would vastly increase costs and slow everything down.It would certainly solve funding problems if nothing else
If you need to make things interchangable, make programs dependant on progress made on other companies or give fixed workshare to different companies that is how you get triumphs of value like SLS or Eurofighter.
The HLS decision was very un-NASA in a good way. They weren't given enough funding, previous NASA administration's would have spread the money 2-3 ways accomplished very little and then the program would get cancelled in a few years for not making enough progress.
This time around NASA just went for SpaceX and essentially said to Congress if you want two you are going to have to fund it, if you want to cancel it you are going to look like a
holes given SpaceXs progress.Beati Dogu said:
Quite a few key people have been leaving Blue Origin recently it seems. Their lame anti-SpaceX postings being the last straw for some apparently.
"At least 16 key leaders and senior engineers have left Blue Origin this summer, CNBC has learned, with many moving on in the weeks after Bezos’ spaceflight.
Two of the engineers, Nitin Arora and Lauren Lyons, this week announced jobs at other space companies: Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Firefly Aerospace, respectively. Others quietly updated their LinkedIn pages over the past few weeks.
Those who announced they were leaving Blue Origin did not specify why, but frustration with executive management and a slow, bureaucratic structure is often cited in employee reviews on job site Glassdoor."
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/20/jeff-bezos-blue-or...
Space industry twitter says that this isn't as such n indication of anything other than that it often makes sense to see a project through and then switch jobs. New Shepard flying people was one such program."At least 16 key leaders and senior engineers have left Blue Origin this summer, CNBC has learned, with many moving on in the weeks after Bezos’ spaceflight.
Two of the engineers, Nitin Arora and Lauren Lyons, this week announced jobs at other space companies: Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Firefly Aerospace, respectively. Others quietly updated their LinkedIn pages over the past few weeks.
Those who announced they were leaving Blue Origin did not specify why, but frustration with executive management and a slow, bureaucratic structure is often cited in employee reviews on job site Glassdoor."
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/20/jeff-bezos-blue-or...
Doesn't mean that the company is well run
Beati Dogu said:
Exactly. US companies are always using lawfare to get their own way and to slow down the competition. Who do you think persuaded Congress to introduce a 2022 deadline that would stop ULA from using the Russian made RD-180 engines on their Atlas V rocket?
I don’t think SpaceX have taken NASA to court yet, but they've sued the Air Force via the same U.S. Court of Federal Claims a couple of times. Most recently in May 2019.
In 2018 the Air Force left SpaceX out of substantial rocket development funds, while giving them to three of their rivals. These awards were $500 million to Blue Origin for its New Glenn rocket, $792 million to Northrop Grumman for its OmegA rocket (which the company cancelled in 2020) and $967 million to ULA for the Vulcan Centaur rocket. SpaceX would have put the money towards Starship development, but it seems the Air Force weren’t that taken with it at the time. The case was passed down to a district court in California and the judge rejected SpaceX’s case last October.
No hard feelings from the Air Force. They’ve given SpaceX launch contracts for the likes of GPS satellites and the X-37B space plane. They also awarded SpaceX & ULA a big 5-year launch contract to start in 2022.
SpaceX sued NASA in the early 2000's to get access to what became the COTS program which they used to develop the Falcon 9 and cargo Dragon.I don’t think SpaceX have taken NASA to court yet, but they've sued the Air Force via the same U.S. Court of Federal Claims a couple of times. Most recently in May 2019.
In 2018 the Air Force left SpaceX out of substantial rocket development funds, while giving them to three of their rivals. These awards were $500 million to Blue Origin for its New Glenn rocket, $792 million to Northrop Grumman for its OmegA rocket (which the company cancelled in 2020) and $967 million to ULA for the Vulcan Centaur rocket. SpaceX would have put the money towards Starship development, but it seems the Air Force weren’t that taken with it at the time. The case was passed down to a district court in California and the judge rejected SpaceX’s case last October.
No hard feelings from the Air Force. They’ve given SpaceX launch contracts for the likes of GPS satellites and the X-37B space plane. They also awarded SpaceX & ULA a big 5-year launch contract to start in 2022.
Originally NASA was funding Kistler Aerospace sole source to build a fully reusable two stage vehicle to deliver cargo to the ISS. However Kistler went about building that vehicle in what we now know is the wrong way, the skinny company method where they subconned every bit of the design out. They ran out of money and Orbital ATK got in with the Cygnus.
SpaceX also won some concessions as part of their protest of the Airforce award essentially they got a concession that if they won the launch contract (which they did) that they would get some additional funds to cover them not getting an award to develop a new vehicle.
As part of this concession things like an extended fairing and vertical integration for Falcon Heavy would get funded by the Airforce.
All of this is moot really as Starship will likely fly before a number of NASA and Airforce contracts actually complete and SpaceX will likely want to move over to that platform.
Flooble said:
Mind you they have thousands of staff, so 16 people is a small fraction - even of the senior leadership it's not a huge percentage.
The worry is that any energetic, enthusiastic types will move on and it will leave behind those who are comfortable with "inch by inch, slowly".
People like that have a habit of bringing the best of their old staff with them though. After Bezos made his rocket flight, they gave all the permanent staff a $10,000 bonus, which was nice, but hardly speaks to their staff retention. Heck, even their recruitment director has left.The worry is that any energetic, enthusiastic types will move on and it will leave behind those who are comfortable with "inch by inch, slowly".
I hear a bunch of people on contract got the chop when Blue Origin didn’t get a HLS contract, despite the legal action since.
They really need to drop the ego stuff and concentrate primarily on the BE-4 engine. Their delays with that will screw over ULA and by extension US Space Force, NRO, DoD etc. They are not winning any friends in that community either.
Beati Dogu said:
People like that have a habit of bringing the best of their old staff with them though. After Bezos made his rocket flight, they gave all the permanent staff a $10,000 bonus, which was nice, but hardly speaks to their staff retention. Heck, even their recruitment director has left.
I hear a bunch of people on contract got the chop when Blue Origin didn’t get a HLS contract, despite the legal action since.
They really need to drop the ego stuff and concentrate primarily on the BE-4 engine. Their delays with that will screw over ULA and by extension US Space Force, NRO, DoD etc. They are not winning any friends in that community either.
Yes, exactly. I have seen it a few times. Those who are good and confident leave for better opportunities elsewhere. They then lure those who are good but didn't have the confidence to jump - until their buddies reassured them "It's great out here". The original firm ends up literally filled with the people that no-one wanted!I hear a bunch of people on contract got the chop when Blue Origin didn’t get a HLS contract, despite the legal action since.
They really need to drop the ego stuff and concentrate primarily on the BE-4 engine. Their delays with that will screw over ULA and by extension US Space Force, NRO, DoD etc. They are not winning any friends in that community either.
Looks like the rumour is true and Blue Origin are experimenting with stainless steel rockets now too. This is likely for New Glenn’s upper stage, which they now want to make reusable, now that Starship is on the horizon.
Seems familiar somehow. More here:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/first-imag...
Seems familiar somehow. More here:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/first-imag...
And probably flies as high as the real thing too.
As an aside, a New Shepard is due to be launched in about 10 minutes time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMFhXuARR4o
As an aside, a New Shepard is due to be launched in about 10 minutes time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMFhXuARR4o
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