Leaked Documents Show That Blue Origin Was Obsessed With SpaceX – Futurism

"Blue is kind of lazy compared to SpaceX," a Blue Origin exec said in 2018.Corporate Retreat

In late 2018, leadership at Jeff Bezoss spaceflight company Blue Origin was so concerned about falling behind Elon Musks SpaceX that they hired management consultants to figure out what they were doing wrong.

The consultants gave a briefing to about a dozen senior leaders Blue Origin, and some of those executives notes were recently obtained by Ars Technica. They show that the company was obsessed with figuring out where SpaceX was beating them areas like talent acquisition, low-cost launches, and design so they could catch up.

But, given SpaceXs utter dominance in the commercial spaceflight industry and the fact that Blue Origin has never launched an orbital flight, it seems that the briefing didnt work.

The notes suggest that Blue Origins focus was on emulating SpaceXs success in no small part by trying to copy its business strategy. For instance, consultants identified that SpaceX was claiming a bigger chunk of the market by offering drastically cheaper launches and by putting more stock in customer satisfaction than was typical for the industry.

They have a customer focus, a Blue Origin executive wrote at the time, according to Ars. We should too. In many cases we view the customer as a nuisance. This is the case with LSA (Launch Services Agreement, or the US Space Force), satellite launch for NG (satellite customers for the New Glenn rocket), and astronauts for NS (New Shepard). We need to change this culture.

One key problem identified by briefing was that the consultants and Blue Origin leadership felt that their employees werent delivering as much as SpaceXs were.

Blue is kind of lazy compared to SpaceX, one executive wrote, according to Ars. I often work off-hours and weekends, just the nature of the business. Blue is a ghost town on weekends, and Im sure people are working, but I do think we have quite a bit of heroic high performers picking up the slack too often.

Ultimately, the briefing clearly didnt solve the companys problems. The gap between SpaceX and Blue Origin is far wider now than it was in 2018 so either Blue Origin moved in the wrong direction, or SpaceX simply continued to outpace it.

READ MORE: Revealed: The secret notes of Blue Origin leaders trying to catch SpaceX [Ars Technica]

More on Blue Origin: Jeff Bezos Grits Teeth To Congratulate Elon Musk, Who Makes Fun of Him Constantly

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Leaked Documents Show That Blue Origin Was Obsessed With SpaceX - Futurism