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So no one is willing to put their name to the letter except a person who was fired for cause two years ago. > the manager discovered that the team had document

by JackFr 5y ago

So no one is willing to put their name to the letter except a person who was fired for cause two years ago. > the manager discovered that the team had documented "more than 1,000 problem reports" related to the company's rocket engines. Without context, that claim is completely meaningless with respect to the safety. This is a hack job and a garbage story.

varelse 5y ago
Hi Jeff!
ddevault 5y ago
Here's a quote from NASA regarding Blue Origin: > But it is not an overstatement to say that all of the successes upon which the Option A procurement is built, all of this once-in-a-generation momentum, can easily be undone by one party—in this case, Blue Origin—who seeks to prioritize its own fortunes over that of NASA, the United States, and every person alive today who dreams to see humans exploring worlds beyond our own. Plainly stated, a protest sustain in the instant dispute runs the high risk of creating not just delays for the Artemis program, but that it will never actually achieve its goal of returning the United States to the Moon. What begins as a mere procurement delay all too easily turns into a lack of political support, a budget siphoned off for other efforts, and ultimately, a shelved mission. GAO should, of course, sustain one or more of Blue Origin’s grounds of protest if they find them to be availing. But NASA merely wishes to impress upon this office just how high the stakes are in the present dispute. Source: https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/29/22689729/blue-origin-moon-lunar-lander-price-nasa-hls-foia https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/29/22689729/blue-origin-moon...
- JackFr 5y ago
  Here's a quote from NASA's lawyers in response to a protest to GAO that SpaceX received preferential treatment to Blue Origin: ... (In fact Blue Origin's complaint was that SpaceX's proposal was inconsistent with NASA's safety review requirements, and SpaceX was given an opportunity to tweak their proposal.)
  - ddevault 5y ago
    Addressing these disputes is what the GAO is for, and the GAO ruled in NASA's favor. Having read all of the proposals, from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics, and statements from NASA, the GAO, and Blue Origin, among other materials, I agree with the GAO's conclusion. BO's lawsuit is baseless, frivolous, and vain.
- mach1ne 5y ago
  I find it baffling how Blue Origin is making sure that there is a strong force within NASA to never grant them any contract, ever.
mach1ne 5y ago
Seeing how aggressively Blue Origin is ready to take legal action, it would be almost a miracle if the paper had more signatures. Sure, it might be fake, but I'd say that the odds of it being real are higher.
xhkkffbf 5y ago
I was also troubled by this. In the CBS story, Ms. Abrams calls the other 20 people incredibly brave. Uh. No. If they were brave, they would quit and make their claims publicly. They clearly want to keep cashing that paycheck while being involved in an organization that they find reprehensible.
- gamblor956 5y ago
  Many of them did quit. They chose to stay anonymous because they didn't want to get blacklisted in an industry controlled by 3 petulant billionaires with a history of suing their critics. (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blue-origin-alexandra-abrams-safety-workplace-culture/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=133949895 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blue-origin-alexandra-abrams-sa...)
  - xhkkffbf 5y ago
    That's still not particularly brave, is it? If they have real concerns about engineering flaws that could even kill someone, they really should be going to the FAA, not writing a letter with someone who was fired two years ago. The FAA is quite capable of granting someone anonymity. My impression is that this is really the work of someone who is still angry enough to dredge up problems from two years ago. The CBS reporter could only interview 5 of the 20 after granting them all anonymity. So why aren't the 15 at least willing to speak to a reporter?
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
gamblor956 5y ago
This is not a hack job or a garbage story. 17 engineers left BO this summer in the week after the BO flight, at the same time reports of internal dissension first started being reported openly. And with respect to Abrams, "for cause" in hercase was...allegedly receiving export control violation warnings. In the context of her former job in employee communications, that would mean disclosing information in press releases that was subject to export controls. It's hard to imagine what sort of PR employee would have access to information subject to export controls at a civilian spaceflight company, since that information should have been sanitized before getting to the PR team. Either Blue Origin is confessing that multiple employees violated export controls or that they lack proper controls on such information (either way, placing their federal contracts at risk), or they're lying, so take what Blue Origin says here with a huge boulder of salt. Also, CBS News spoke with 5 of the other (anonymous) signatories. They wouldn't disclose their names for fear of getting sued. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blue-origin-alexandra-abrams-safety-workplace-culture/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blue-origin-alexandra-abrams-sa...

by JackFr 5y ago

varelse 5y ago

Hi Jeff!

ddevault 5y ago

Here's a quote from NASA regarding Blue Origin: > But it is not an overstatement to say that all of the successes upon which the Option A procurement is built, all of this once-in-a-generation momentum, can easily be undone by one party—in this case, Blue Origin—who seeks to prioritize its own fortunes over that of NASA, the United States, and every person alive today who dreams to see humans exploring worlds beyond our own. Plainly stated, a protest sustain in the instant dispute runs the high risk of creating not just delays for the Artemis program, but that it will never actually achieve its goal of returning the United States to the Moon. What begins as a mere procurement delay all too easily turns into a lack of political support, a budget siphoned off for other efforts, and ultimately, a shelved mission. GAO should, of course, sustain one or more of Blue Origin’s grounds of protest if they find them to be availing. But NASA merely wishes to impress upon this office just how high the stakes are in the present dispute. Source: https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/29/22689729/blue-origin-moon-lunar-lander-price-nasa-hls-foia https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/29/22689729/blue-origin-moon...

JackFr 5y ago
Here's a quote from NASA's lawyers in response to a protest to GAO that SpaceX received preferential treatment to Blue Origin: ... (In fact Blue Origin's complaint was that SpaceX's proposal was inconsistent with NASA's safety review requirements, and SpaceX was given an opportunity to tweak their proposal.)
- ddevault 5y ago
  Addressing these disputes is what the GAO is for, and the GAO ruled in NASA's favor. Having read all of the proposals, from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Dynetics, and statements from NASA, the GAO, and Blue Origin, among other materials, I agree with the GAO's conclusion. BO's lawsuit is baseless, frivolous, and vain.
mach1ne 5y ago
I find it baffling how Blue Origin is making sure that there is a strong force within NASA to never grant them any contract, ever.

mach1ne 5y ago

Seeing how aggressively Blue Origin is ready to take legal action, it would be almost a miracle if the paper had more signatures. Sure, it might be fake, but I'd say that the odds of it being real are higher.

xhkkffbf 5y ago

I was also troubled by this. In the CBS story, Ms. Abrams calls the other 20 people incredibly brave. Uh. No. If they were brave, they would quit and make their claims publicly. They clearly want to keep cashing that paycheck while being involved in an organization that they find reprehensible.

gamblor956 5y ago
Many of them did quit. They chose to stay anonymous because they didn't want to get blacklisted in an industry controlled by 3 petulant billionaires with a history of suing their critics. (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blue-origin-alexandra-abrams-safety-workplace-culture/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=133949895 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blue-origin-alexandra-abrams-sa...)
- xhkkffbf 5y ago
  That's still not particularly brave, is it? If they have real concerns about engineering flaws that could even kill someone, they really should be going to the FAA, not writing a letter with someone who was fired two years ago. The FAA is quite capable of granting someone anonymity. My impression is that this is really the work of someone who is still angry enough to dredge up problems from two years ago. The CBS reporter could only interview 5 of the 20 after granting them all anonymity. So why aren't the 15 at least willing to speak to a reporter?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

gamblor956 5y ago

This is not a hack job or a garbage story. 17 engineers left BO this summer in the week after the BO flight, at the same time reports of internal dissension first started being reported openly. And with respect to Abrams, "for cause" in hercase was...allegedly receiving export control violation warnings. In the context of her former job in employee communications, that would mean disclosing information in press releases that was subject to export controls. It's hard to imagine what sort of PR employee would have access to information subject to export controls at a civilian spaceflight company, since that information should have been sanitized before getting to the PR team. Either Blue Origin is confessing that multiple employees violated export controls or that they lack proper controls on such information (either way, placing their federal contracts at risk), or they're lying, so take what Blue Origin says here with a huge boulder of salt. Also, CBS News spoke with 5 of the other (anonymous) signatories. They wouldn't disclose their names for fear of getting sued. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blue-origin-alexandra-abrams-safety-workplace-culture/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/blue-origin-alexandra-abrams-sa...