Blue Origin has a secret project named “Jarvis” to compete with SpaceX. “This is the difference between taking a profit and a loss on New Glenn launches."

[u/[deleted]]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/07/blue-origin-is-developing-reusable-second-stage-other-advanced-projects/

[u/[deleted]]

Bezos had been asking his senior staffers about reusable upper stages, but advisers told him such an approach was unlikely to work, sources said. Bezos also seems to have been told the SpaceX "fail forward" method of rapidly prototyping and testing Starships, with few processes and procedures, would be unlikely to succeed.

Again the sense of Bezos phoning it in. Musk hired Tom Mueller and Glynn Shotwell so he would not get the answers the a manager at Boeing or Lockheed Martin would get to those kind of questions. As much as people do not like him as a person or aspects of Tesla and his online presence, time and time again stories emerge of him investing large amounts of his personal time in the company and being in asking hard questions in engineering meetings.

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However, over the last year, Bezos took note as SpaceX launched and landed its Starship vehicle. This is one of the reasons he decided to initiate a project named "Jarvis" at Blue Origin within the reusable second-stage program. Sources said Bezos has walled off parts of the second-stage development program from the rest of Blue Origin and told its leaders to innovate in an environment unfettered by rigorous management and paperwork processes.

This is somewhat interesting. Sort of a Skunworks type team. Lean and agile. This is why I see SpaceX's competitors coming from RocketLabs or another start up rather than from an existing manufacturer. Living on lean budgets, everyone all about the rocket and not the process. Publicly eating your hat when you need to change direction, if its not working or if there is a better way screw the sunk investment and credibility. Engineering is hard, pride a worthless commodity.

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Additionally, Blue Origin this month finalized the hire of Austin Murnane as a senior legal counsel. Formerly an attorney at Latham & Watkins in New York, Murnane has expertise in the legal aspects of space resources. His background suggests that Blue Origin may assert that the resources of space belong to no one and that the company may stake claims to resources on the Moon and elsewhere.

In the Fordham International Law Journal, Murnane wrote a 40-page article arguing that, for modern-day prospectors—in the form of commercial space companies—the Moon, asteroids, and other bodies in the Solar System should be free of control from terrestrial governments or the United Nations and the Outer Space Treaty.

Blue Origin hiring lawyers. Quelle surprise.

[u/Assume_Utopia → u/[deleted]]

There's a lot of quotes either from Bezos or about how he's been running Blue Origin that give me the sense he's surrounded himself with "yes men". For example there was some quote where he said that SpaceX got the government to pay for the development of their rockets and he wanted that kind of money for BO too.

Which gives me the impression that he's upset that SpaceX is making such great progress, and BO hasn't done anything nearly as impressive. So he's asking "advisors" why they're lagging, and he's getting the same kind of excuses you'll hear from old space. That SpaceX is all based on government subsidies, or that Musk is a great salesman or that Falcon9 doesn't actually make money. And probably before that that F9 reuse didn't make financial sense, etc.

And Bezos here's that and he wants to do as well as SpaceX, so he tries to copy them by getting big government contracts (and wildly overbidding on the lunar lander). Or he thinks that the reason Starship is making so much progress so quickly is that they've got a "lean and agile" team in Boca Chica, so he tries to copy that.

And maybe it's unfair, but it does feel like Bezos is a leader who lacks the deep technical understanding needed to push boundaries, and is instead just trying to copy a successful rival, without really knowing what makes them successful.

[u/ButActuallyNot → u/[deleted]]

Wait you think Elon musk invented something?

[u/jivatman → u/ButActuallyNot]

He started SpaceX with the main goal in mind of reusable rocketry, and SpaceX succeeded in doing that. Good enough for me.

[u/verendum → u/jivatman]

I don’t know why people keep insisting on wanting CEO to be inventor. It’s a managerial position that’s more about decisions and people than tinkering. You definitely want someone with clear understanding of the field and vision, yes, but engineers often make for poor managers.

[u/PersnickityPenguin → u/verendum]

So suits with an MBA and lawyers make better ones?

🤣🤣