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Comment by newsclues | Hacker News Reader

Because they haven’t done “the hard thing” yet.

Sure, but there doesn't appear to be anything intrinsic to BO that lends itself a particular disadvantage to doing "the hard thing".

They appear to have the requisite resources & staff, so predicting that they will never do "the hard thing" seems a bit like spiking the football after the first quarter.

Space is hard. Even with the best people and resources there is a high probability of failure. The only way forward is to launch -> fail -> learn -> repeat.

Yes, pith aside, everybody knows that space is hard. The GP commenter is arguing that it's odd to write off BO when they are currently in the process of launch -> fail -> learn -> repeat.

but they aren't in that process, they haven't even started it

They have for their sub-orbital rockets. Everyone's gotta start somewhere, right?

> They appear to have the requisite resources & staff

What makes you think that?

Um, they have Jeff Bezos' personal piggy bank to fund it? He periodically liquidates his Amazon holdings to fund BO.

According to LinkedIn, they currently have ~2,800 full time employees. Their executive team comes from leadership roles at various aerospace agencies (both private and public).

They also appear to have no issues winning government space contracts: https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/04/30/blue-origin-wins-lions...

That they have the resources is just about the least controversial claim. Whether they can actually execute on it is another question entirely. Despite the uncertainty, no credible person can claim with certainty that they will fail.

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