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Blue Origin built a massive rocket factory, and a massive rocket engine factory. It's hard to overstate just how much bigger the company is than Virgin Galactic

Blue Origin built a massive rocket factory, and a massive rocket engine factory. It's hard to overstate just how much bigger the company is than Virgin Galactic, they have spent billions on infrastructure alone. Blue's payroll for a quarter is probably much more than the total investment into Virgin Galactic to date. However, because Blue doesn't release a lot to the press about things they have that are not flying yet, and because they've had a lot of delays with their engines, pushing the whole project back, there is very little in visible results. It's sort of a running joke among rocket watchers that tomorrow Blue is going to open the doors, roll out a massive rocket and launch it into orbit. It's just that it's always tomorrow, not today. Given how Bezos is willing to keep investing into Blue, someday that tomorrow will come.

neartheplain 6y ago
>Given how Bezos is willing to keep investing into Blue, someday that tomorrow will come. I hope Blue Origin succeeds, but Jeff’s investment and attention by no means guarantees success. The Fire Phone was a similarly enormous, exorbitantly-expensive, and secretive project that ultimately failed utterly. In that case, from my perspective as someone who was there, it was Bezos’s fixation on a particular solution (3D display, hand tracking) and refusal to consider or solicit contrary feedback that doomed the product. I worry about a similar outcome for Blue Origin. I hope I’m wrong.
- riffraff 6y ago
  I am not very well informed on these things, but is it comparable? The Fire Phone seems to have lived a pretty short life from launch to death (it was announced in 2014 and canceled in 2015). Even accounting for a few years of development, it seems a different scale from BO, which has been running for 20 years.
hourislate 6y ago
I suppose at some point if they continue there will be a rocket. Just wonder how relevant it will be when SpaceX has already landed a Starship on Mars. I really wish them some success but I'm of the opinion at this point that Blue Origin is just a play around company and am surprised NASA even considers or takes them seriously.

neartheplain 6y ago

>Given how Bezos is willing to keep investing into Blue, someday that tomorrow will come. I hope Blue Origin succeeds, but Jeff’s investment and attention by no means guarantees success. The Fire Phone was a similarly enormous, exorbitantly-expensive, and secretive project that ultimately failed utterly. In that case, from my perspective as someone who was there, it was Bezos’s fixation on a particular solution (3D display, hand tracking) and refusal to consider or solicit contrary feedback that doomed the product. I worry about a similar outcome for Blue Origin. I hope I’m wrong.

riffraff 6y ago
I am not very well informed on these things, but is it comparable? The Fire Phone seems to have lived a pretty short life from launch to death (it was announced in 2014 and canceled in 2015). Even accounting for a few years of development, it seems a different scale from BO, which has been running for 20 years.

hourislate 6y ago

I suppose at some point if they continue there will be a rocket. Just wonder how relevant it will be when SpaceX has already landed a Starship on Mars. I really wish them some success but I'm of the opinion at this point that Blue Origin is just a play around company and am surprised NASA even considers or takes them seriously.