Blue Origin shows off his maximum talent

Jeff Bezos could have been heard triumphant when he fired at the edge of space last month, but apparently the same cannot be said about other Blue Origin employees. On Friday, CNBC was first to report that more than a dozen engineers had left Bezos ’company in recent weeks, with some leaving for high-ranking roles in rival rival teams.

Among the leading names to leave Blue Origin were Nitin Arora, the chief engineer of the Blue Origin lunar lander program, and Lauren Lyons, who announced earlier this month she had taken on a role as chief operating officer of Firefly Aerospace. Meanwhile, Arora said in a LinkedIn publication last week he had taken a role in SpaceX. Fox Business confirmed that other notable outings of the company included former NASA astronaut Jeff Ashby, along with Steve Bennet, who helped direct the New Shepard launch program.

Bezos ’company has recently lost out in SpaceX for a key NASA contract to develop a moon lander for the Artemis program, a decision on which Blue Origin is suing. Earlier this year, NASA backtracked on initial plans to award several companies development contracts for the agency’s Human Landing System (HLS) program. instead, it grants $ 2.9 billion in funding only on SpaceX. Before last week’s lawsuit, Bezos he had written a open letter to NASA administrator Bill Nelson, saying his company would cover billions in costs if they could have a part of the contract.

A Blue Origin spokesman told CNBC that, despite turnover, the company grew at an accelerated pace and added 850 people to the workforce in 2020 alone i adding 650 more so far this year. “We continue to play important leadership roles in manufacturing, quality, engine design and vehicle design,” they said. “It’s a team we’re building and we have great talent.”

Still, these high profile outings are a good reminder of the space business it can be hard to break even for billionaire founder of Amazon. We saw so many things at the end of last year when Blue Origins noneef operant oan officer left the company, after multiple government contracts were lost and burst of development delays. Maybe if Bezos strives harder to keep the company together and less to his cowboy cosplay, Blue origin it would be in better shape than the current one.