4 ms·

Blue Origin Engineer: we are not like this

43 points by danbr 5y ago

krrishd 5y ago
What's the context of this?
- _Microft 5y ago
  Blue Origin competed for a Human Landing System ("HLS") [0] contract. SpaceX won a contract and Blue Origin did not. Then Blue Origin complained at the GAO and the complaint was rejected. Management is acting like sore losers ever since. They have released graphics badmouthing SpaceX' Starship [1] and are suing NASA now [2]. The prevailing view is that this behaviour is not just sanctioned by CEO Bob Smith but by Jeff Bezos himself. Search for Blue Origin, HLS and/or GAO for the rest of the story. The coverage by Ars Technica's Eric Berger is usually a good source, you might want to skim the list of his articles [3]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_... [1] https://www.blueorigin.com/assets/blue-origin-hls-national-team-lunar-starship-infographic.pdf https://www.blueorigin.com/assets/blue-origin-hls-national-t... [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes-nasa-to-federal-court-over-hls-contract.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes... [3] https://arstechnica.com/author/ericberger/ https://arstechnica.com/author/ericberger/ Edit: thanks verdverm, I added some links and restructured the post
  - verdverm 5y ago
    They have, since the GAO decision, released two jerky info graphics and have most recently sued NASA. Guess they haven't thought about the phrase "don't bite the hand that feeds you" recently
    - hinkley 5y ago
      How many people have come off looking good by suing NASA? Seems like the Venn Diagram of that includes families of astronauts killed on missions, people who had stuff land on their house, and <checks notes> no, that's about it.
      - iso1210 5y ago
        Didn't Austrailia sue NASA for littering with skylab?
        hinkley 5y ago
        Is that the 'stuff landing on your house' scenario or are you thinking of a different incident?
        perilunar 5y ago
        Sort of. The local government area where the debris landed (Esperance, in Western Australia) fined NASA $400 for littering.
        Aeronwen 5y ago
        Which NASA stiffed them on.
      - nickik 5y ago
        SpaceX sued NASA (or at least complained) and won. NASA wanted to award a contract to Space plane Kistler and this was prevented and the contract competed. This however was the GAO and they already rejected Blue complaint. SpaceX also sued Air Force and won that too.
  - resolve-ev 5y ago
    They have even drawn the dimensions of Starship wrong in the graphic.(The length from the hatch should be almost 4 times as long not 3) https://drive.google.com/file/d/11PzZvWXOlV09B4wI9jPA_yRp5N9q9eQP/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/11PzZvWXOlV09B4wI9jPA_yRp5N9...
  - verdverm 5y ago
    I'd add that NASASpaceFlight does a great job of covering this in their weekend round tables. Great place to keep up with all things space related. In particular, they reflect what most of us are feeling w.r.t. recent BO executive moves vs the engineers hard work and passion
  - krrishd 5y ago
    Ah, thanks.
headShrinker 5y ago
> “ Before the April contract award, NASA had handed out nearly $1 billion in concept development contracts – with SpaceX receiving $135 million, Dynetics $253 million, and Blue Origin receiving $579 million.” Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes-nasa-to-federal-court-over-hls-contract.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes... BO took a ton of money during the first round. Now the execs are pissed they weren’t awarded the contract. It seems BO just didn’t submit a compelling proposal and now they are using scorched earth behavior to get their way in court. It’s a shame because the BO team is being humiliated by the execs with their bullying antics. I have a huge amount of respect for the BO team. I KNOW they are really good and care a lot about the mission and space exploration. Too bad about the execs…
- zamalek 5y ago
  Well, you can look at the calibre of the execs. Musk knows enough about his passion to actually embed into the teams and help innovate. Bezos just bought a ticket to space for a billion bucks, so that he could be cool like the other billionaires.
  - AtlasBarfed 5y ago
    I don't know Bezos or Musk, and I'm not a CEO cult of personality member, but Bezos seems to want to be the smartest guy in the room, and if he isn't he'll elbow the other people out of the way. Musk does seem to want to be the smartest person in the room, and he obviously likes his public person, but if he isn't the smartest doesn't seem to mind. Battery day was basically him saying high level remarks, and delegating PUBLICLY to the other extremely smart people.
wly_cdgr 5y ago
The contract was supposed to be Bezos' retirement present and he can't handle ending on a losing note
- mlindner 5y ago
  He's only 7 years older than Musk.
bob229 5y ago
Fake person
908B64B197 5y ago
The document from BO [0] reads like an add for SpaceX. "There are an unprecedented number of technologies, developments, and operations that have never been done before for Starship to land on the Moon. This includes developing Super Heavy, not only the largest launch vehicle stage ever produced, but one that has to be reusable, and Starship, the first ever reusable second stage. Then, the two systems must work together. A launch site in Boca Chica, Texas that has never conducted an orbital launch must demonstrate the ability to do so 7-11 times within 1-week increments. And cryogenic fluid transfer, a process that has also never been done, must work to refuel up to 100 MT of propellants from Starship to Starship" It's just like Apollo: So many new tech (launching the largest payload ever, precision docking, computer assisted flight). [0] https://drive.google.com/file/d/11PzZvWXOlV09B4wI9jPA_yRp5N9q9eQP/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/11PzZvWXOlV09B4wI9jPA_yRp5N9...
overstand 5y ago
Reminds me of the ole "I'm with stupid" shirt.

43 points by danbr 5y ago

krrishd 5y ago

What's the context of this?

_Microft 5y ago
Blue Origin competed for a Human Landing System ("HLS") [0] contract. SpaceX won a contract and Blue Origin did not. Then Blue Origin complained at the GAO and the complaint was rejected. Management is acting like sore losers ever since. They have released graphics badmouthing SpaceX' Starship [1] and are suing NASA now [2]. The prevailing view is that this behaviour is not just sanctioned by CEO Bob Smith but by Jeff Bezos himself. Search for Blue Origin, HLS and/or GAO for the rest of the story. The coverage by Ars Technica's Eric Berger is usually a good source, you might want to skim the list of his articles [3]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program#Human_Landing_... [1] https://www.blueorigin.com/assets/blue-origin-hls-national-team-lunar-starship-infographic.pdf https://www.blueorigin.com/assets/blue-origin-hls-national-t... [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes-nasa-to-federal-court-over-hls-contract.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes... [3] https://arstechnica.com/author/ericberger/ https://arstechnica.com/author/ericberger/ Edit: thanks verdverm, I added some links and restructured the post
- verdverm 5y ago
  They have, since the GAO decision, released two jerky info graphics and have most recently sued NASA. Guess they haven't thought about the phrase "don't bite the hand that feeds you" recently
  - hinkley 5y ago
    How many people have come off looking good by suing NASA? Seems like the Venn Diagram of that includes families of astronauts killed on missions, people who had stuff land on their house, and <checks notes> no, that's about it.
    - iso1210 5y ago
      Didn't Austrailia sue NASA for littering with skylab?
      - hinkley 5y ago
        Is that the 'stuff landing on your house' scenario or are you thinking of a different incident?
      - perilunar 5y ago
        Sort of. The local government area where the debris landed (Esperance, in Western Australia) fined NASA $400 for littering.
        Aeronwen 5y ago
        Which NASA stiffed them on.
    - nickik 5y ago
      SpaceX sued NASA (or at least complained) and won. NASA wanted to award a contract to Space plane Kistler and this was prevented and the contract competed. This however was the GAO and they already rejected Blue complaint. SpaceX also sued Air Force and won that too.
- resolve-ev 5y ago
  They have even drawn the dimensions of Starship wrong in the graphic.(The length from the hatch should be almost 4 times as long not 3) https://drive.google.com/file/d/11PzZvWXOlV09B4wI9jPA_yRp5N9q9eQP/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/11PzZvWXOlV09B4wI9jPA_yRp5N9...
- verdverm 5y ago
  I'd add that NASASpaceFlight does a great job of covering this in their weekend round tables. Great place to keep up with all things space related. In particular, they reflect what most of us are feeling w.r.t. recent BO executive moves vs the engineers hard work and passion
- krrishd 5y ago
  Ah, thanks.

headShrinker 5y ago

> “ Before the April contract award, NASA had handed out nearly $1 billion in concept development contracts – with SpaceX receiving $135 million, Dynetics $253 million, and Blue Origin receiving $579 million.” Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes-nasa-to-federal-court-over-hls-contract.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes... BO took a ton of money during the first round. Now the execs are pissed they weren’t awarded the contract. It seems BO just didn’t submit a compelling proposal and now they are using scorched earth behavior to get their way in court. It’s a shame because the BO team is being humiliated by the execs with their bullying antics. I have a huge amount of respect for the BO team. I KNOW they are really good and care a lot about the mission and space exploration. Too bad about the execs…

zamalek 5y ago
Well, you can look at the calibre of the execs. Musk knows enough about his passion to actually embed into the teams and help innovate. Bezos just bought a ticket to space for a billion bucks, so that he could be cool like the other billionaires.
- AtlasBarfed 5y ago
  I don't know Bezos or Musk, and I'm not a CEO cult of personality member, but Bezos seems to want to be the smartest guy in the room, and if he isn't he'll elbow the other people out of the way. Musk does seem to want to be the smartest person in the room, and he obviously likes his public person, but if he isn't the smartest doesn't seem to mind. Battery day was basically him saying high level remarks, and delegating PUBLICLY to the other extremely smart people.

wly_cdgr 5y ago

The contract was supposed to be Bezos' retirement present and he can't handle ending on a losing note

mlindner 5y ago
He's only 7 years older than Musk.

bob229 5y ago

Fake person

908B64B197 5y ago

The document from BO [0] reads like an add for SpaceX. "There are an unprecedented number of technologies, developments, and operations that have never been done before for Starship to land on the Moon. This includes developing Super Heavy, not only the largest launch vehicle stage ever produced, but one that has to be reusable, and Starship, the first ever reusable second stage. Then, the two systems must work together. A launch site in Boca Chica, Texas that has never conducted an orbital launch must demonstrate the ability to do so 7-11 times within 1-week increments. And cryogenic fluid transfer, a process that has also never been done, must work to refuel up to 100 MT of propellants from Starship to Starship" It's just like Apollo: So many new tech (launching the largest payload ever, precision docking, computer assisted flight). [0] https://drive.google.com/file/d/11PzZvWXOlV09B4wI9jPA_yRp5N9q9eQP/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/11PzZvWXOlV09B4wI9jPA_yRp5N9...

overstand 5y ago

Reminds me of the ole "I'm with stupid" shirt.