Top engineers and managers fleeing Blue Origin
According to this story today, Blue Origin this summer lost at least sixteen top management and engineering employees, all leaving in a very short time.
At least 16 key leaders and senior engineers have left Blue Origin this summer, CNBC has learned, with many moving on in the weeks after Bezos’ spaceflight.
…Others quietly updated their LinkedIn pages over the past few weeks. Each unannounced departure was confirmed to CNBC by people familiar with the matter. Those departures include: New Shepard senior vice president Steve Bennett, chief of mission assurance Jeff Ashby (who retired), national security sales director Scott Jacobs, New Glenn senior director Bob Ess, New Glenn senior finance manager Bill Scammell, senior manager of production testing Christopher Payne, New Shepard technical project manager Nate Chapman, senior propulsion design engineer Dave Sanderson, senior HLS human factors engineer Rachel Forman, BE-4 controller lead integration and testing engineer Jack Nelson, New Shepard lead avionics software engineer Huong Vo, BE-7 avionics hardware engineer Aaron Wang, propulsion engineer Rex Gu, and rocket engine development engineer Gerry Hudak.
Those who announced they were leaving Blue Origin did not specify why, but frustration with executive management and a slow, bureaucratic structure is often cited in employee reviews on job site Glassdoor.
There is another possibility that would be more hopeful. It could be that Jeff Bezos is shaking up the company because of its poor accomplishments during the past four years, since CEO Bob Smith was hired.
That Smith however is still there makes this guess unlikely. The article also notes that Smith’s approval among Blue Origin employees is abysmal, with only 15% approving his management, when compared to high numbers given to the management leaders at SpaceX and ULA.
Thus, this exodus is more likely a sign that that the rats are fleeing what they see as a sinking ship.
It would be a mistake to dismiss Blue Origin however. The company is swimming in dough because of Bezos’ deep pockets, and he is free to do what he thinks must be done to fix things. Under such conditions it is very unlikely Blue Origin will disappear. More likely Bezos will straighten things out, though the company now has to play big catch up, not only against SpaceX but also against the fleet of new orbital rocket companies about to come on line — all doing so ahead of Blue Origin.
There is also the possibility that this story has got its facts wrong. It makes a very big error near the beginning, claiming that former SpaceX engineer Lauren Lyons had left Blue Origin to join SpaceX, when she had actually left SpaceX to take a big promotion at Firefly. My mistake. Lyons had moved from SpaceX to Blue Origin. This job change was leaving Blue Origin to go to Firefly.
Hat tip to reader Jay.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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According to this story today, Blue Origin this summer lost at least sixteen top management and engineering employees, all leaving in a very short time.
At least 16 key leaders and senior engineers have left Blue Origin this summer, CNBC has learned, with many moving on in the weeks after Bezos’ spaceflight.
…Others quietly updated their LinkedIn pages over the past few weeks. Each unannounced departure was confirmed to CNBC by people familiar with the matter. Those departures include: New Shepard senior vice president Steve Bennett, chief of mission assurance Jeff Ashby (who retired), national security sales director Scott Jacobs, New Glenn senior director Bob Ess, New Glenn senior finance manager Bill Scammell, senior manager of production testing Christopher Payne, New Shepard technical project manager Nate Chapman, senior propulsion design engineer Dave Sanderson, senior HLS human factors engineer Rachel Forman, BE-4 controller lead integration and testing engineer Jack Nelson, New Shepard lead avionics software engineer Huong Vo, BE-7 avionics hardware engineer Aaron Wang, propulsion engineer Rex Gu, and rocket engine development engineer Gerry Hudak.
Those who announced they were leaving Blue Origin did not specify why, but frustration with executive management and a slow, bureaucratic structure is often cited in employee reviews on job site Glassdoor.
There is another possibility that would be more hopeful. It could be that Jeff Bezos is shaking up the company because of its poor accomplishments during the past four years, since CEO Bob Smith was hired.
That Smith however is still there makes this guess unlikely. The article also notes that Smith’s approval among Blue Origin employees is abysmal, with only 15% approving his management, when compared to high numbers given to the management leaders at SpaceX and ULA.
Thus, this exodus is more likely a sign that that the rats are fleeing what they see as a sinking ship.
It would be a mistake to dismiss Blue Origin however. The company is swimming in dough because of Bezos’ deep pockets, and he is free to do what he thinks must be done to fix things. Under such conditions it is very unlikely Blue Origin will disappear. More likely Bezos will straighten things out, though the company now has to play big catch up, not only against SpaceX but also against the fleet of new orbital rocket companies about to come on line — all doing so ahead of Blue Origin.
There is also the possibility that this story has got its facts wrong. It makes a very big error near the beginning, claiming that former SpaceX engineer Lauren Lyons had left Blue Origin to join SpaceX, when she had actually left SpaceX to take a big promotion at Firefly. My mistake. Lyons had moved from SpaceX to Blue Origin. This job change was leaving Blue Origin to go to Firefly.
Hat tip to reader Jay.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
When I read the article, I first thought the company was crippled. On second thought, it will take them 4 to 6 months to replace, promote, and fill those holes across those multiple projects if they fire the CEO and throw A LOT of money at the problem. More delays to BE-4 and New Glenn.
Did anyone else notice some of the names? Jeff Ashby is a former astronaut.
They could be deadwood…but I doubt it.
Jarvis was supposed to keep the suits off the engineers back…so this latest exodus would put the lie to that idea…in that Bezos has either fallen prey to another Wormtongue….or it casts doubt on the reason BO exists to begin with….
I have long held that the medical community is in cahoots with greens in undermining America behind the scenes…the Greens after Musk show their flag at least. But BO has in fact done more damage!
They have:
A. bought up great minds only to sit on them;
B. Tied up ULA on engine delays;
C. Tied up Musk’s hands ALSO with suits so now there is no movement in either old or new space…and
D; where Musk democritized space by giving it to steelworkers in the rough, Bezos’ JR Ewing stunt could not have been better designed so as to alienate the masses.
Despite the Peter Principle at Boeing…SLS gains ground-no Bezos there at least.
So while the press bashes test gods, and the wokes at Ars Technica trash my guys in Huntsville…the fact is that it is Bezos who has become the worst enemy to American Spaceflight since Proxmire-either by accident…or design.
BO delinda est
Delenda est. Whatever.
Ray Van Dune wrote ”
Delenda est. Whatever”.
The Latin would not stand, sir!
Grim-visaged war has wrinkled her botoxed mask,
And now, instead of mounting grid finned rockets
To astonish the souls of a world wide audience,
The dead eyed zombies are in court to crush
Those who dream of reaching for the stars.
I‘m guessing these folks were the “mavericks” who wanted to emulate SpaceX, but instead were told to “sit down & shut up” ‘cause those Dinospace managers know how to run an aerospace company better than some mere engineers!
Jeff Wright,
Good assessment on your four points. A new delay to launches has now been created, not technical or weather related: the injunction. I can see it now… “Sorry we must stop the countdown at T-0:00:04 due to an injunction from the 9th Circuit Court on the rights of the endangered “.
As far as Jarvis is concerned, I suspect it was a case of “too little, too late” for those departing for management related reasons – especially if they weren’t the ones working on the New Glenn second stage.
Thank you Jay. Engineers get it from all sides politically. Greens don’t like them. The moneychangers want to starve them or fire them for profitability. Libertarians want to destroy NASA like they killed steel…treason. And the woke supremacists will pile on. Each has their own agenda…none good.
Assuming Bezos isn’t secretly trying to wreck spaceflight…then he has become a rare example of an individual too enthusiastic about his calling…..becoming the Brandon Bostian of boosters.
Who was he? The world found out late in the evening on May 12, 2015 as passenger train 188 made for Frankford Junction in Philadelphia..
Amtrak’s enemies had a field day…as libertarians often do…though lack of proper budgets are as much to blame…see Flint’s water crisis.
But in this particular case…the proximate cause was an FRN. The “RN” stands for “railway” nut. You all know what the first letter stands for.
He loved trains too much…to where he was on a cell phone with other fanboys. Bezos is the same way. Musk actually does a better job reining himself in than he is credited for.
Bezos has caused a derailment…to be sure..
When a libertarian kills a project out of Randian stupidity…it hurts people.
When an environmentalist goes after industry….it hurts people.
When a multi-billionaire throws his weight around via wasteful lawsuits and impacts progress as America’s enemies are bearing down…it HURTS,
people!
STOP IT
“Michael Malice: Totalitarianism and Anarchy”
Lex Fridman Podcast Number 200 (July 2021)
https://youtu.be/R5rNoV1Qy_Q
2:37:21