Jump to content

Blue Origin thread.


Vanamonde

Recommended Posts

The whole "everyone must come back in to the office now" thing is causing LOTS of conflict in many companies.

When the first big wave of "virtual offices" hit in the late 90s, it was followed by a really strong pushback that "virtual offices don't work". But now after many companies have had a full year and a half of nearly 100% virtual, a lot of STEM employees who don't work with hardware are saying they like the new paradigm. In most cases it is the managers who are fretting about it.

Edited by mikegarrison
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

I will add, though, that this whole response has the tone of some white guy saying "I never see racism or sexism around here".

Well no %$#& you don't, because it's not aimed at you, dude.

Yep, that’s exactly the impression I got.

A better response would have been to say something more like, “Here’s what we’ve done to remedy issues as they were brought to us” rather than “We have all these structures in place so there can’t possibly be any issues.” Indignance smells of indifference; humility would have gone a lot further.

16 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:
16 hours ago, tater said:

I absolutely think he's a big part of the problem with BO (not the harassment claims, I have zero information aside from that article), but what's he supposed to do, say nothing?

If they had slightly changed it to 'we are looking into our leadership practices' rather than 'we as a whole have been maligned' I think it would stink less.

Fair as well. The “entire team” line was gratuitous when anyone reading the article could see that the criticism was leveled at the leadership culture, not the workers as a whole. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

54 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Fair as well. The “entire team” line was gratuitous when anyone reading the article could see that the criticism was leveled at the leadership culture, not the workers as a whole. 

Also a fair take.

Obviously any such letter is going to be as self-serving as possible. From a culture standpoint, the buck really stops with Smith.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Cuky said:

And yet they are furious that they aren't getting those big contracts from NASA

Well, look how hard they are trying to copy SLS with that timeline. Its as if BO is screaming "NASA, I'm your son! Love Me!!!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So Smoth appears to be trying to suck Bezos dry. I mean, what have they all been doing? They be built a test article or two, a Blue Moon mock-up, some pathfinder engines, and hopefully the first Vulcan flight engines will soon be finished. Let’s just hope they pass acceptance testing. 

Other than that, they’ve slaughtered a lot of trees and electrons, AFAICT. It seems they spent more on lawyers than hardware….

Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Can't believe this is not posted yet... 

 

 

Well I was going to after I saw a tweet about it, but it’s blocked in Canada, assuming that’s the SNL skit. So I didn’t after trying to find a version I could watch, but found squirrels instead…

One of the few times I could use a VPN, I suppose….

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Email I got from BO this morning:

Quote

William Shatner and Blue Origin’s Audrey Powers to fly on New Shepard’s 18th mission

Today, Blue Origin announced actor William Shatner and Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s Vice President of Mission & Flight Operations, will fly on board New Shepard NS-18. They will join crewmates Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries for the flight which lifts off from Launch Site One on October 12.  

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Quote

"Blue is kind of lazy compared to SpaceX," one executive wrote. "I often work off-hours and weekends, just the nature of the business. Blue is a ghost town on weekends, and I’m sure people are working, but I do think we have quite a bit of heroic high performers picking up the slack too often."

Quote

"They have a customer focus," a Blue Origin executive wrote in response. "We should too. In many cases we view the customer as a nuisance. This is the case with LSA (Launch Services Agreement, or the US Space Force), satellite launch for NG (satellite customers for the New Glenn rocket), and astronauts for NS (New Shepard). We need to change this culture."

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/1/2021 at 2:43 PM, mikegarrison said:

I will add, though, that this whole response has the tone of some white guy saying "I never see racism or sexism around here".

Well no %$#& you don't, because it's not aimed at you, dude.

I wish I had more likes...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

 

Quote

 

 

1 hour ago, tater said:

 

 

 

"SpaceX is also known for iterative design, a process by which engineers spend less time studying and designing problems, and more time building and testing solutions.... 

 

While it may produce spectacular failures... iterative design generally allows for a program to move more quickly, and by seeking faults during real-world tests, results in a more robust final version of a vehicle"

 

This feature of SX should not have been buried so deep in the article - I'm convinced it's one of the signal differences between SX and what the rest of the industry has morphed into since the first Apollo landing 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

 

"SpaceX is also known for iterative design, a process by which engineers spend less time studying and designing problems, and more time building and testing solutions.... 

 

While it may produce spectacular failures... iterative design generally allows for a program to move more quickly, and by seeking faults during real-world tests, results in a more robust final version of a vehicle"

 

This feature of SX should not have been buried so deep in the article - I'm convinced it's one of the signal differences between SX and what the rest of the industry has morphed into since the first Apollo landing 

Somewhat true, but that iterative design and willingness to fail is built upon the other factors. Without heavy cost-cutting by SpaceX (in-house production, cost-oriented design, and employee productivity examples) the hardware-rich iterative approach gets far too expensive. I bet the old space contractors would have a collective stroke if they knew how comparatively little was spent on Starships. And even we would probably be surprised. 

But it seems they’ve learned nothing since that report. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Somewhat true, but that iterative design and willingness to fail is built upon the other factors. Without heavy cost-cutting by SpaceX (in-house production, cost-oriented design, and employee productivity examples) the hardware-rich iterative approach gets far too expensive. I bet the old space contractors would have a collective stroke if they knew how comparatively little was spent on Starships. And even we would probably be surprised. 

But it seems they’ve learned nothing since that report. 

Yeah - I'm probably praising the icing - but the cake is 'in-house, cost-oriented and highly productive'. 

Can't imagine succeeding with iterative rapidity if you are buying the stuff that you break from someone else. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Which begs the question of why did so many smart people decide to have such a stupid process? I mean I get the US was embarrassed in the late 50's with all their launch failures, and don't want a repeat of those "dark days" of failure after failure, but the fact that nobody took a step back and asked "How did they get so successful so quickly in those early days?" boggles my mind. The answer is they failed!

Edited by Meecrob
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...