Jeff Bezos Quits Amazon: What Does It Mean for Blue Origin?
More commitment from Bezos could propel Blue Origin to orbit, but its problems run deeper than many think.
The two richest men in the world, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, both have their own private space programs. While Musk gets most of the attention, and has advanced further than anyone else, Bezos has been quietly working on his own projects for a while.
His recent announcement that he will be stepping down as Amazon CEO has inspired a buzz of chatter asking what comes next. It seems probable that a lot of his attention will be focused on Blue Origin and space exploration, alongside other interests like climate change, politics and philanthropy.
Don’t expect Bezos to approach space like Musk does. It’s unlikely we’ll see him tweeting out controversial statements or announcing missions to Mars anytime soon. But we could see a bit more publicity surrounding Blue Origin and their activities, and maybe a push to start launching more regularly.
Blue Origin has been trying to hit two big objectives for a while. The first is to fly an astronaut to just beyond the edge of space, something they have been planning since at least 2019. According to recent reports that trip may still be some time off, though in January the company did achieve a successful test flight, carrying a dummy astronaut beyond the atmosphere.
Although it is true the flight reached space, it didn’t stay there long. This was a sub-orbital flight, more like a stone lobbed high in the air than true spaceflight. Hence Blue’s other goal: to launch a rocket into orbit. Their hopes rest on New Glenn, a rocket named after the first American to orbit the Earth.
New Glenn is still untested. The rocket has yet to make a single flight; publicly the company still hopes to make one later this year. Bezos already has a handful of commercial missions lined up for the rocket, but progress has undeniably been slower than originally hoped for.
Rumours from inside Blue Origin suggest that the company has a high staff turnover rate and suffers from a lack of focus and direction. These are problems that Bezos may be able to address, if he is willing to invest time and effort into the company.
At present he devotes one day a week to Blue Origin, an amount that doesn’t seem to have been enough to meet his ambitious goals for the company. Reviews from employees on Glassdoor paint a negative picture of the organisation’s leadership, and of Bezos’ recent commitment. This will have to be changed if Blue Origin wants to make it to orbit.
Changing the culture of a business is hard work, especially if the situation has been allowed to fester for a while. Accelerating progress at Blue Origin will need more than words from Bezos — if you want to judge whether he will succeed, watch carefully how much time he devotes to spaceflight, and how much more time goes on other activities
I was curious to see how Biden would approach NASA and space exploration in general. During the election campaign space was barely mentioned — perhaps understandably given the multiple crises now facing the country. However two big questions surrounded Project Artemis and Space Force.
Last week the Biden administration announced they would continue supporting Artemis and its goal of returning to the Moon. Trump wanted to land people by 2024, conveniently close to the end of his desired second term. Much like that second term, the goal looks utterly impossible now. Biden would be wise to ditch the target, and instead produce an ambitious but achievable plan for NASA.
After a rather dismissive first pass on the question of Space Force, the administration now says they have no plans to revisit the new branch of the military. It remains to be seen how seriously Biden will treat Space Force over his presidency, and whether he will attempt to improve its already weak image.
A trio of probes are now arriving at Mars. A year ago, before they embarked on their voyage to the Red Planet, I wrote a summary of each mission. ESA failed to get their parachute systems ready in time for launch, so they are out of contention this time. But America, China and the UAE now have new spacecraft in orbit around Mars. Both China and America will soon attempt landings on the planet’s surface. Let us hope for a successful touchdown.
So much reporting around health, science and space exploration is unrealistic, hyperbolic and misleading. These are complicated topics, and there are often no easy or straight forward answers. Instead what is needed is analysis, discussion and an exploration of the possible ways forward.
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