Blue Origin Engineer: we are not like this | Hacker News Reader

Blue Origin Engineer: we are not like this

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43 pointsdanbr18 comments

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_yRp5N9...

> “ 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...

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…

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.

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.

What's the context of this?

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_...

[1] https://www.blueorigin.com/assets/blue-origin-hls-national-t...

[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-takes...

[3] https://arstechnica.com/author/ericberger/

Edit: thanks verdverm, I added some links and restructured the post

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

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.

Didn't Austrailia sue NASA for littering with skylab?

Is that the 'stuff landing on your house' scenario or are you thinking of a different incident?

Sort of. The local government area where the debris landed (Esperance, in Western Australia) fined NASA $400 for littering.

Which NASA stiffed them on.

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.

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_yRp5N9...

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

Ah, thanks.

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

He's only 7 years older than Musk.

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