The two names at the top of the list of the richest people in the world; Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos… New information is emerging about the rivalry between Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin. Finally, the secret notes of Blue Origin leaders who tried to capture SpaceX have surfaced.
About three years ago, Blue Origin officials were aware that they could not realize the vision of the company’s founder, Bezos. Because the billionaire businessman has been talking about a world-class space transportation company for 20 years. But Bezos’ company still hasn’t even launched an orbital rocket. SpaceX, founded by Musk, has established itself as the best rocket company all over the world. Because in 2018, the company launched 21 rockets in a single year, which was the record number of rockets launched by a company in a year. So what could be the solution?
As Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos rivalry heats up, moves from Blue executives
As Ars Technica reports, a Blue Origin executive wrote in a note in late 2018, “Blue is a bit lazy compared to SpaceX. ” said. Meanwhile, the company hired a consulting firm called Avascent to find out where SpaceX beat them. Blue Origin was obsessed with SpaceX!
In late summer 2018, Bob Smith was celebrating his first anniversary as CEO of Blue Origin. He took such a step to identify the differences between Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and to evaluate SpaceX’s strengths and weaknesses. After Avascent completed its analysis, the senior leadership team at Blue Origin received a briefing. Managers took a lot of notes.
Elon Musk is customer focused and reduces costs!
This nine-page note was later compiled and delivered to Smith on November 1, 2018, under the heading “Avascent Briefing Notes from the Senior Team.” Ars Technica also reached the screenshot of these notes. Accordingly, an important feature of SpaceX is its customer focus.
Consultants determined that Elon Musk attaches great importance to satisfying customers and tries to provide desired services at a lower cost. A Blue Origin executive said, “They’re customer oriented. We should too. In most cases, we see the customer as a nuisance. ” Wrote.
Avascent stated that SpaceX is trying to minimize rocket and spacecraft production costs. In Blue Origin, by contrast, cost was seen as a secondary or tertiary factor when designing vehicles. The consultants also highlighted parts at SpaceX that performed poorly at lower costs but did quite well.
During the design processes, SpaceX engineers work with the manufacturers of these parts to ensure they are produced efficiently. “Production seems to have a strong place at the table in decision-making,” one Blue Origin executive wrote. “Traditionally, the Blue team did not focus on manufacturability and cost when designing,” said another executive.
Jeff Bezos will be angry at this: Blue Origin executives admitted!
In response to Avascent’s report on SpaceX’s cost focus, Blue Origin officials also acknowledged that they did not have an effective tool for estimating costs before embarking on a project.
One executive, referring specifically to the New Glenn rocket, said, “Blue is full of poor predictions. Estimates barely cover the spot cost purchase of this material based on market price, let alone the entire piece material purchase. How did SpaceX keep its target costs? They probably did a good job of guessing. ” Wrote.
The reason Blue Origin doesn’t focus on costs is because of differences in thinking. When Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, he only invested $100 million in the company and only became a billionaire years later. SpaceX had to win commercial and government launch contracts to survive. So he tried to cut costs.
In contrast, Blue Origin started out as a think tank in 2000. Jeff Bezos was already very wealthy, and by the mid-2010s he was ready to dedicate $1 billion a year in personal funds to keep Blue Origin afloat. SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell also touched on this difference in philosophy in 2019.
In addition, the consultants said that SpaceX attaches importance to the recruitment of new graduates and interns. They noted that the young engineers saw SpaceX as the “Harvard of rocketry.” Blue Origin executives emphasized that the rate of new graduates and interns in their companies is only 1.7 percent.
However, the consultants also wrote that Elon Musk’s vision of settling on Mars inspired employees and youth. On top of that, a Blue Origin manager suggested that they could do something similar with the idea of settling on the Moon.
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