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According to CNBC, Blue Origin lost staff, at least Blue Origin’s 17 top leaders, engineers quit after SpaceX got the $2.9 billion NASA moon-lander contract. Also, several of them leaving shortly after founder Jeff Bezos went into space. The news comes after Insider’s Kate Duffy reported that a lead engineer had quit. It was to work for Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Tuesday. This wasn’t the only high-ranking official who left. According to the report, several other engineers and top leaders have also left.
According to the publication, Blue Origin lost staff, several of those leaving were a part of a team that hoped to obtain a high-profile NASA lunar contract. The departure of roughly a dozen staff has been confirmed by Fox Business. According to a spokeswoman for Bezos’ space company, it has grown fast in recent years. Roughly 1,500 new staff joining since the beginning of 2020.
They said: “In fact, we’ve grown by nearly a factor of four over the past three years.”
The departures were notable for their timing
According to sources, the departures were notable for their timing. They occurred just after NASA revealed in April that SpaceX would be given a $2.9 billion contract for a moon lander for the Artemis missions. During the Artemis contract bidding process, NASA stated that it anticipated choosing two partners, but instead elected to award a single contract. One of three bidders was a group led by Blue Origin.
In April, Blue Origin filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Office. In July, the federal watchdog dismissed the protest. Blue Origin filed a federal claims court lawsuit against NASA earlier this month, alleging that the agency failed to properly analyze the proposals. The moon-landing contract was put on hold by NASA last week until November.
In July, Bezos took the first crewed space flight for his business. Blue Origin gave employees $10,000 bonuses after his space trip.