Latest news with #Limp
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
2nd launch of Blue Origin's powerful New Glenn rocket delayed to Aug. 15 at the earliest
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Blue Origin's powerful New Glenn rocket will be groundbound for at least another couple of months. Jeff Bezos' aerospace company had been targeting late spring for the second launch of the 320-foot-tall (98 meters) New Glenn, which features a reusable first stage. But that's no longer the plan. "New Glenn's second mission will take place NET [no earlier than] August 15th," Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said via X on Monday (June 9). "Following in the footsteps of our first booster, we've chosen the name 'Never Tell Me The Odds' for Tail 2," he added in the post. "One of our key mission objectives will be to land and recover the booster. This will take a little bit of luck and a lot of excellent execution. We're on track to produce eight GS2s this year, and the one we'll fly on this second mission was hot-fired in April. Gradatim Ferociter!" The first New Glenn booster was named "So You're Telling Me There's a Chance," a line from the 1994 Jim Carrey movie "Dumb and Dumber." The "chance" Blue Origin was referring to was the possibility that the booster would land safely on the company's drone ship shortly after its Jan. 16 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. That didn't happen, but the rest of that debut flight went well: New Glenn successfully carried its payload — a test version of Blue Origin's new Blue Ring spacecraft platform — to Earth orbit. The GS2s that Limp mentioned are New Glenn upper stages. And the number he cited is meaningful; the company has previously said that it planned to launch eight New Glenn missions this year — a target that is almost certainly out of reach at this point, as Ars Technica's Eric Berger noted. "Gradatim ferociter," by the way, is Blue Origin's motto. It's Latin for "Step by step, ferociously." Related stories: — Blue Origin: Everything you need to know about the private spaceflight company — New Glenn: Blue Origin's reusable rocket — NASA delays ESCAPADE Mars launch on Blue Origin's giant New Glenn rocket to 2025 to avoid potential cost overruns Limp's X post didn't give a reason for the delay to Aug. 15. And the company still hasn't announced what New Glenn — which can haul 50 tons (45 metric tons) of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO) — will carry on the test flight. In February, during a talk at the 27th Annual Commercial Space Conference in Washington, Limp said that Blue Origin was "still looking for opportunities." "If it came to it and we just had to fly a mass simulator, we'll fly a mass simulator," he said at the time.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'Never tell me the Odds,' Blue Origin set to launch New Glenn this summer, attempt landing
Blue Origin's multi-stage New Glenn rocket launched once in January, and the Space Coast has waited ever since for the second liftoff of the rocket which could become a main competitor to SpaceX. Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp posted to X (formerly Twitter) that the company's rocket, originally set to launch again in late spring, will now blast off no earlier than August. The company will once again attempt to land and recover the rocket's first stage, also called a booster. "New Glenn's second mission will take place NET August 15th. Following in the footsteps of our first booster, we've chosen the name 'Never Tell Me The Odds' for Tail 2," wrote Limp. "One of our key mission objectives will be to land and recover the booster. This will take a little bit of luck and a lot of excellent execution." Getting New Glenn operational will bring Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin into the orbital payload marketplace, which is currently dominated by Elon Musk's SpaceX. If Blue Origin can achieve reusability with the rocket's booster, that would bring launch costs down drastically. Like SpaceX, Blue Origin will land the booster on a sea faring vessel; Blue Origin's ship is named Jacklyn for Bezos' mother. To date, SpaceX is the only company which has successfully demonstrated reusability in a multiple stage rocket; its Falcon 9 boosters land on a regular basis. Blue Origin has successfully landed its single stage suborbital New Shepard rocket, which launches paying customers out of Texas, but was not so fortunate with the January attempt of the multiple-stage New Glenn out of Florida. When is the next Florida rocket launch? Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, Axiom, ULA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral Back in January, the 321-foot-tall New Glenn rocket barreled off Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36. While the upper stage successfully sent the payload to orbit, the company had high hopes of landing the booster on Jacklyn. Instead, Jacklyn sailed back to Port Canaveral empty. That lost booster? It was named "So You're Telling Me There's a Chance." After the failed landing, Limp acknowledged it was an ambitious goal for the first launch. In fact, it took competitor SpaceX years to successfully land a Falcon 9 booster. Once operational, New Glenn will be Blue Origin's workhorse rocket. Future payloads include the NASA EscaPADE mission to Mars. The rocket will also launch Amazon's Project Kuiper internet satellites, which are a competitor to SpaceX's Starlink. The August launch announcement is timely. This coming Friday, June 13, will see the second launch of the Kuiper internet constellation atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@ or on X: @brookeofstars. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Blue Origin's New Glenn to launch late summer, attempt booster landing
Axios
04-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
Blue Origin to lay off 10% of employees
Jeff Bezos' rocket company Blue Origin is laying off 10% of its workforce, CEO Dave Limp told employees on Thursday. Why it matters: Bezos' company competes with Elon Musk's SpaceX in the rocket race, with both founders pouring tens of billions of dollars into their respective ventures. Catch up quick: The layoffs affect roughly 1,400 of Blue Origin's nearly 14,000 employees, who are mostly based in Florida, Texas, and Washington. The layoffs also come as the company begins production of its New Glenn rocket, which first launched last month after several hiccups. What they're saying: In an email shared with employees Thursday morning and obtained by Axios, Limp said the layoffs will impact positions in engineering, research and development, and program/project management, as well as other "layers of management." "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 wrote. "We grew and hired incredibly fast in the last few years, and with that growth came more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed."
Asharq Al-Awsat
15-02-2025
- Business
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Jeff Bezos' Rocket Company is Slashing Workforce after Debut Orbital Launch
Jeff Bezos' rocket company Blue Origin is cutting 10% of its workforce, The AP reported. This week's move comes a month after the debut of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, which reached orbit on its first try. CEO Dave Limp relayed the layoff news to employees Thursday, with notifications going out Friday. In an email to staff obtained by The AP, Limp said it was a 'tough decision' but that the company grew too fast over the past few years. 'With that growth came more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed," he said in the note. Limp said the cuts are needed in order to speed up manufacturing as well as the launch rate. Based in Kent, Washington, Blue Origin launches its New Glenn rockets from Florida and its smaller New Shepard rockets from Texas. Like Elon Musk's SpaceX — its chief competitor — Blue Origin holds contracts from NASA to land astronauts on the moon in the coming years. It was not immediately clear how many employees would be affected by the layoffs. The privately-held Blue Origin does not disclose employment figures.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jeff Bezos' rocket company is slashing 10% of its workforce a month after debut orbital launch
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Jeff Bezos' rocket company Blue Origin is cutting 10% of its workforce. This week's move comes a month after the debut of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, which reached orbit on its first try. CEO Dave Limp relayed the layoff news to employees Thursday, with notifications going out Friday. In an email to staff obtained by The Associated Press, Limp said it was a 'tough decision' but that the company grew too fast over the past few years. "With that growth came more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed, he said in the note. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Limp said the cuts are needed in order to speed up manufacturing as well as the launch rate. Based in Kent, Washington, Blue Origin launches its New Glenn rockets from Florida and its smaller New Shepard rockets from Texas. Like Elon Musk's SpaceX — its chief competitor — Blue Origin holds contracts from NASA to land astronauts on the moon in the coming years. It was not immediately clear how many employees would be affected by the layoffs. The privately-held Blue Origin does not disclose employment figures. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
