The hubris is… ahem… astronomical.
It’s possible that blue origin is just taking a different set of tactics. Manned moon missions involve a lot of risk with minimal opportunity to recover, maybe a more methodical approach gets you there faster.
SpaceX, for comparison, did not try launching humans until its 85th Falcon 9 mission. While several falcon 9s have failed to land, only one has ever failed in flight, on its 19th flight. The Falcon 9, unlike the New Shepard, is orbital capable.
Taking 20 years to launch your first customers is more a figurative crawl than a jump. You’ll see their fair share of RUDs from Blue Origin once they start testing orbital rockets instead of impressive toys. In the meantime SpaceX is landing orbital boosters on autonomous barges at sea and testing a giant interplanetary grain silo. All the best to Blue Origin but don’t be fooled, they are playing a desperate game of catch-up and failing a bit right now. Go Team Space!
https://www.change.org/p/the-proletariat-do-not-allow-jeff-b...
It seems strange to me that so many people would get mad about billionaires spending money on science exploration, but you don’t hear a peep when they buy 150 m yachts…
> "Blue Origin will [...] waiv[e] all payments in the current and next two government fiscal years up to $2B to get the program back on track right now. This offer is not a deferral, but is an outright and permanent waiver [...]"
I dunno, sounds like "no payments until you're locked into our system". I know I wouldn't take that bait if I was a federal contract reviewer.
From a meta point, it's as though Blue Origin doesn't know how bidding contracts works; you put your best foot forward first, you don't sweeten the deal after the contract is awarded.
Certainly they are making a decent PR play in the news though.
Hearing Bezos herald himself as the defender against monopoly is multiple tiers of hypocritical.
