Blue Origin, the spaceflight firm owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is chopping 1,400 jobs—round 10% of its workforce—because it shifts focus to ramping up rocket manufacturing and growing launch frequency.
In an inside memo seen by Enterprise Issues, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp mentioned the job cuts would trim managerial ranks whereas decreasing roles in analysis and improvement (R&D) and engineering. The choice follows the corporate’s first profitable check flight of its New Glenn rocket, a significant milestone in its house ambitions.
Based by Jeff Bezos in 2000, Blue Origin has been a key participant within the personal house trade however has typically been outperformed by rival SpaceX. The corporate is now restructuring to hurry up manufacturing and launch operations, aiming to shut the hole with Elon Musk’s dominant house agency.
“Our primary focus in 2025 and beyond is to scale our manufacturing output and launch cadence with speed, decisiveness, and efficiency for our customers,” Limp informed workers.
The cuts are a part of a broader strategic shift that prioritises the New Glenn rocket, a robust heavy-lift launch car designed to hold massive payloads and satellites into house.
Named after John Glenn, the primary American astronaut to orbit Earth, New Glenn is designed to be extra highly effective than SpaceX’s Falcon 9, with higher satellite-carrying capability.
Bezos intends to make use of New Glenn to assist Undertaking Kuiper, his bold plan to deploy hundreds of low-earth orbit satellites to supply international broadband companies. The challenge is a direct competitor to Musk’s Starlink community, which already has a powerful presence within the satellite tv for pc web market.
Blue Origin’s management shake-up started in 2023, when Dave Limp—previously head of Amazon’s units division—was appointed CEO to speed up the corporate’s progress. The New Glenn launch in January was a important step in proving Blue Origin’s capabilities, however challenges stay.
Regardless of its deep monetary backing from Bezos, Blue Origin has lagged behind SpaceX, which has pioneered reusable rockets and operates at a better launch frequency.
By chopping prices and shifting sources towards sooner, extra frequent launches, Blue Origin hopes to turn into a stronger competitor within the industrial house race. Nevertheless, the layoffs spotlight the challenges of balancing innovation with monetary sustainability in an trade the place effectivity and velocity are key.
As Blue Origin repositions itself, the success of New Glenn and Undertaking Kuiper shall be essential in figuring out whether or not Bezos can actually problem Musk’s dominance in house exploration and satellite tv for pc companies.
