NS Billionaire Space Race It’s just a race by name. In fact, there is SpaceX — and others.
Only a company founded by Elon Musk nearly two decades ago has sent a booster rocket into orbit and landed safely again. Only SpaceX has landed a rocket the size of a 15-story building atop a drone. In the middle of the ocean, only SpaceX has both. NASA astronauts and private citizens To the International Space Station, only SpaceX produces its own desk-sized communications satellite every year. Only SpaceX has the nearly weekly launch pace necessary to double the number of single-person operating satellites in orbit. In less than two years, only SpaceX has launched a prototype of The largest and most powerful rocket ever, a giant called the Starship that was destined to take humans to the moon.
SpaceX’s total rocket industry dominance isn’t what you’d expect.
More innovation is happening in the commercial space sector today than ever in history, and the launch service sector is particularly competitive. Relativity Space is building the world’s first 3D-printed rocket. and plans to build a rocket on Mars with a Virgin Orbit robot. Launch rockets from under the wings of a jumbo jet. Virgin Galactic’s subsidiary is flying people to the edge of space. Based on an air-launched space plane, RocketLab developed the first rocket engine fed by an electric pump and attempted to pull it out of the air with a mesh connected to a helicopter.
And then there’s Blue Origin, which has dominated global headlines for days this week with the introduction of Star Trek actor William Shatner – for short – into space.
If there’s any rocket company expected to have the same level of technological success as SpaceX, it’s Blue Origin. The company was founded by former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in 2000, just two years before SpaceX set up shop in California in 2015. Blue Origin becomes the first company to launch rockets over the Kármán Line, the internationally recognized space frontier. and landed again While this isn’t as challenging as bringing a rocket back from orbit — as Musk has. mock Historically, Bezos remains a milestone in the history of private space exploration, and unlike Musk, Bezos knows what it’s like to ride his own rocket.
Bezos founded Blue Origin with a visionary goal. Inspired by the future of the late Princeton, Gerard K. O’Neill, Bezos dreamed of moving heavy industry off Earth and into space to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He wants to lay the groundwork for an extraterrestrial economy where thousands of people live and work in space. His company is building rockets as powerful as with the Apollo astronauts loaded onto the moon It has teamed up with top defense contractors Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to develop a lunar lander that could bring humans back to the lunar surface. has designed and built the most powerful rocket engine ever. and signed a contract with the United Launch Alliance to supply engines for the next-generation Vulcan rocket.
Undoubtedly, Bezos had many visions. The question was, why couldn’t the second richest man in the world execute it?
In the past few years, Blue Origin’s master plan has begun to unravel. Earlier this year, NASA awarded a contract to land on the moon. SpaceX has left Blue Origin in a daze, now suing the US government. to reconsider the award It has seen an exodus of top engineering talent after a lost contract that only exacerbates it. Too late. Blue Origin has struggled to move forward in the production of the powerful BE-4 rocket engine. The initial launch of ULA’s Vulcan rocket is therefore reduced to the end of 2022, giving it the first full-engine flight. five years behind schedule.
meanwhile The first flight of the company’s legendary New Glenn rocket. which is a heavy launch vehicle capable of lifting almost 100,000 pounds into low-Earth orbit. was pushed to the end of 2022 as soon as possible It was originally intended to fly for the first time last year. Bezos has yet to have the honor of being the first billionaire to ride his own rocket into space. Just two weeks before Bezos flew to the edge of space this summer, Richard Branson completed a suborbital flight of his own spaceship with Virgin Galactic.
How did it happen? Blue Origin has thousands of the world’s leading rocket engineers. The company also has access to unlimited financing. Bezos, which is valued in the south of $200 billion, spends $1 billion a year. Out of his own pocket to fund Blue Origin, by all measures Blue Origin should be one of the most successful space companies in the world.
Ally Abrams, a former head of employee communications at Blue Origin, recently wrote, “Blue Origin has all the ingredients for success and it turns out to be truly great” whistleblower essay. Provide details about safety and sexism issues at the company. “Engineers really believe that and they try every day to make that a reality. despite the intervention of the leaders.”
According to Abrams, Blue Origin’s problems have both a technical and cultural dimension. Technically, Abrams said the company suffers from a huge amount of technical debt – an engineering challenge created by choosing a more rapid solution. best solution and a relentless focus on speed that undermines the ability to manage properly. Problems with launch vehicles, she describes exodus of top talent from Blue Origin. “Tired of Band-Aids Problems”
“Technical debt is a problem most companies have, but at Blue it is at an incredible level,” Abrams said. “It really failed. to change from an R&D company to a manufacturing company.”
Abrams cites some of the technical debt rising from Blue Origin’s increased focus on speed, an irony for the company’s motto. Step by step ferociously, a Latin expression of “Step by step, fierce.” She pursued growing pressure to move into 2017 when it became apparent the company was unable to keep pace with competitors at SpaceX. Clearly, as with “the jealousy he seems to have for the other billionaires. who seemed to be more advanced than him.”
“Schedules are always a big joke in the company,” Abrams said. And the staff laughed because they knew it was impossible.”
But Blue Origin has more problems than just engineering.
In her essay, Abrams describes companies in which executives exhibit “disruptive behavior”. And where, according to Abrams, Blue Origin’s cultural issues started at its peak and trickled down throughout the company, she said. Bezos, to lead the company in 2017, has repeatedly failed to listen to concerns of his employees about the safety of company vehicles and a toxic work culture.
“Bob Smith is one of the most incompetent leaders I have ever met,” Abrams said. “Love withered before him. Many engineers are uncomfortable raising concerns about safety and quality for fear of retaliation. Which is really scary when you’re working on a high-risk experimental vehicle.”
Abrams’ whistleblower essay was co-signed by 20 unnamed current and former Blue Origin employees. The company denies several allegations.
A statement from Blue Origin said the company had dismissed Abrams for “repeated warnings for issues related to federal export control regulations” that it had no tolerance for harassment or discrimination. and believes the New Shepard rocket is “the safest spacecraft ever. design or build”
“For me it is especially difficult and painful to hear claims trying to characterize our team in a way that is inconsistent with the characters and abilities I see at Blue Origin every day,” Smith wrote in an email. To a Blue Origin employee earlier this month, “As always, I welcome and encourage members of Team Blue to speak to me directly. if they have any concerns on any topic at any time.”
However, the Blue Origin staff continued to speak. Earlier this week, an review by the Washington Post echoed the issues Abrams raised and painted an organization full of mistrust of leadership. sexism and inadequate concerns about the safety of rocket launchers.
Looking to the future, the question for Blue Origin is whether it can overhaul its culture to carry out its mission. many observers including Abrams, were skeptical, but perhaps changed. is Close. Earlier this year, Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon and is committed to spending more time with Blue Origin. Bezos was able to revive the company’s culture with his grand vision of human space exploration and purpose. together or not
“There will be a lot of work and a lot to maintain if they can put a good leadership team in place. which is determined to move forward in a different way,” Abrams said. “I think it will still take many years for the scar tissue to heal with the staff.”
The only certainty is that Bezos will never colonize him in space. If he can’t build a rocket to get there And that can be a problem that no amount of money can fix.
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