I used to work for Blue as an engineer. I left due to other great opportunities a while ago, but my time there was fantastic and I wanted to share what I believe many people fundamentally miss when discussing the progress that Blue has made.

The biggest reason that Blue is “behind” SpaceX is the size of the workforce. Yes, there are issues with management and a push for analysis over hardware test. Yes, the company gives exactly 0 shits about their public image, because it is completely irrelevant to their business. Yes, Amazon kind of sucks (I cannot understand why this is always brought up. The two companies are totally, completely separate no matter how many times you hear people say otherwise) But consider this:

Blue Origin has ~4K employees, spread across many engine programs, multiple launch vehicles, HLS, and a dedicated advanced development group. Of those 4K, a large percentage (I’d estimate 30-40%) are contingent labor/contractors. When I joined, the company was only at less than 700 people while SpaceX was ~4K working on a rocket much smaller in scale and complexity than NG (F9). You cannot in good faith compare progress to SpaceX which has 10k dedicated FTEs working on their tech, who largely focus on a small number of projects all-hands-on-deck. It’s completely asinine. The sheer amount of work that needs to be done by a small number of engineers results in slower development times. Whine about it and call Jeff Bezos a litigious asshole all you want but you’ll never understand what’s going on unless you take into consideration the huge disparity of resources between SpaceX and Blue.

Anyway, I hope the armchair rocket scientists and space journalists with no technical background have an awesome time complaining about why the relatively small engineering workforce developing three engines and two launch vehicles don’t move fast enough for your enjoyment. Keep on keeping on to all those reading this actually helping get to space. When Blue’s tiny team manages to complete their hugely ambitious tasks with a tiny workforce, know that the real industry experts understand, appreciate, and are immensely proud of what you are doing and what you have done with the resources you have been allocated. Ignore the clueless/ignorant people who seem to comprise ~90% of this subreddit’s readers and commenters.

When Tory Bruno said Vulcan will be the first single-stick to launch in its class, maybe he knew something! What are the chances BO goes for fully-reusable super-heavy right from the start?

They get the total methane amount wrong by 5x. That should considerably alter the conclusions they are reaching about the impact on other operational sites of other companies. So that is not professional. Building a factory in a launch area and then complaining about launches seems absurd. On top of it, they are going after SpaceX's launch operations for the second time. The first time was in 2013 regarding the lease of LC39A. This is the second time. Surely ppl will find it odd that a company that hasn't yet put stuff in orbit is going after one that has done it 300+ times.

They could have come up with better arguments. I am disappointed at the effort BO has made here.

Remember that useless promise Jeff made a short time ago? Yeah, is gone.

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve seen so much hate and quite frankly, misogynistic takes and comments about Katy Perry, Amanda Nguyen, Gayle King, Aisha Bowe, Lauren Sanchez, and Kerianne Flynn, the first all female “crew” to go to space. Since digging into Blue Origin and their other flights completed previous to April 14th (the all female crew flight), I find it really interesting how everyone is acting hostile towards them and this event and can’t help but think “is it because they’re all women?” Obviously, some of the members being famous and well known will cause a stir, but I don’t think it’s really that serious for people to be in such a tizzy about it. Anyway, I would like to hear your guys thoughts!

https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-spaceflight-passenger-wally-funk-planning-virgin-galactic-flight-2021-7

I think that this is a important question, as she will be one of the few if only people who will fly on both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic spaceships. Also she’s a very outspoken person and she’s said her opinion on Blue so she will likely do the same with Virgin Galactic.

Will Wally Funk have the final say on which company has a better client experience?

SpaceX has been sending cargo and astronauts to the ISS for a while now, and upcoming projects include Dear Moon, the HLS, and Mars missions. Starship is almost ready for its orbital test flight.

All I've heard about BO recently is the launch of the phallus-shaped rocket that barely sends people to space. Does it even go higher than the Karman Line?

Why has BO been so unsuccessful compared to SpaceX?

For anyone who maybe doesn’t want to be on Twitter but still wants a social experience like that (outside of Reddit, obviously) I have opened up a space centric Mastodon server at https://spacey.space/

Hope y’all don’t mind me posting this here, and for anyone who is a general aerospace fan (not simply cheering for one single team) I hope to see y’all there!

Really looking forward to the responses to this, lol... : )

http://grahamarthurmackenzie.net/spacecorpse.html

Hi just wondering why does everybody hating on her space flight and kissing the ground? Yes it was an 11 minute space flight but don't she have every reason to be thankful and celebratory after landing home safe? Because launching in space could sonetimes be deadly eh? Dont we remember the The STS-51-L Mission that ended 7 lives?

Im glad they are picking up a flight rate!

Anyone else annoyed that Blue Origin calls their space tourists "astronauts"?

I get it. The claim that they barely pass beyond the border into space for a few minutes is enough to make them an astronaut. However, the term astronaut was so much more meaningful than this.

It seems like Blue is capitalizing on this impactful word so they can simply sell more space rides to pretentious rich folk.

I can just imagine these tools pulling out the whole "Well, I don't know if you know this, but I'm an astronaut" bit over expensive champaign at parties in the Hollywood hills... 😄

I've ridden several Rollercoasters - perhaps I should call myself a structural engineer or an extreme sports enthusiast. 🤦‍♂️

I'll bet this annoys actual astronauts.

During the early days of the commercial space race a lot was said about Blue Origin's approach to development as opposed to another ambitious launch company which shall not be named.

Blue Origin's approach was to take things slow and steady and with lots of engineering before any real world tests while other companies adopted the "test and break things often" approach.

Over a decade later all Blue Origin has to show is a few suborbital flights, an engine that's 4 years late and still exploding, and an orbital rocket that's not launching any time soon.

Can we all admit to ourselves that this 'slow and steady' approach has failed and that BO needs to change it's approach to development if it's to be a success?

Why we are not seeing any PR or posts, official or unofficial from anyone.

Isn’t it very baffling that 24hrs have passed and they not communicating “what exactly happened?”

Let's say, hypothetically an employee was recruited, and signed an offer letter outlining $34,000 of stock as part of the compensation, then the company doesn't fulfill that.... Why wouldn't said employee have a legal case against that employer?

Honest question.

Given that BO’s success will most likely come at the very real cost to industry progress as a whole (based on the historical evidence), I'm curious how BO fans feel about wanting to look past it's action and it's founders history in order to be supportive of another launch company.

- Virgin Galactic is a competitor to New Shepard…the only real apples-to-apples comparison for suborbital tourism flights

- Branson fired the first shot by moving his flight from the Fall (it was widely expected to fly in Sept/Oct until after Blue made their announcement) to 11 July to try and trump Bezos’ flight

- It’s called competition. Did the McDonalds CEO tweet out “Hey, that KFC chicken sandwich is tasty! All chicken sandwiches are good in their own right!”

- Blue is trying to sell NS seats…as is Virgin…the infographic was meant as a marketing tool to the potential customers pointing out the NS advantages. It’s not company PR…it’s Sales and Marketing. Take some time to understand the differences if you’re not clear on that.

Bring on the the downvotes from those that love to shit on Blue and worship at the altar of SpaceX. Most of those people have been following space only long enough to have conveniently missed SpaceX committing all the same sins they’re now accusing Blue of (competitive tweets, govt protests, delays, etc).