A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket stands prepared for its inaugural launch on the Cape Canaveral Area Power Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., January 10, 2025.
Joe Skipper | Reuters
The CEO of Jeff Bezos‘ Blue Origin introduced in an all-hands name on Thursday company-wide layoffs of “about 10 %” of its staff, a sweeping readjustment because it goals to chop prices and ramp up rocket launches.
The layoffs have an effect on roughly 1,400 of the corporate’s practically 14,000 staff — largely concentrated in Florida, Texas and Washington — and comes as Blue Origin begins manufacturing of its large New Glenn rocket, which had its first long-awaited debut launch final month.
“There is no simple technique to talk this,” Dave Limp informed staff within the assembly, which was scheduled the night time prior and lasted about 10 minutes. “There is no query that we have had a variety of successes over the previous couple of months.”
“However that being mentioned, once you have a look at the inspiration of the corporate and what we have to get to over the subsequent three to 5 years, we simply got here to the painful conclusion that we aren’t arrange for the type of success that we actually wished to have,” Limp mentioned.
Limp mentioned the choice would assist Blue Origin scale New Glenn manufacturing and enhance the rocket’s launch cadence, two targets essential to competing with Elon Musk‘s SpaceX and its dominant Falcon 9.
To do this, the corporate wants a tradition that’s “fast, nimble, decisive, and really centered on our clients,” mentioned Limp, who was plucked by Bezos from Amazon’s customer-focused gadgets unit in late 2023 to steer Blue Origin.
Limp has been tasked with streamlining Blue Origin’s many enterprise items — from house stations to lunar landers for NASA — and pushing for higher give attention to New Glenn, giving the corporate a contemporary sense of urgency after years of improvement paralysis, a number of staff say.
However some staff imagine morale and the corporate’s tradition has suffered amid Limp’s push for pace, two staff mentioned, including some workers are looking for jobs elsewhere no matter who survives Thursday’s layoffs.