Blue Origin, the space company that is owned by the founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos, cuts 1,400 jobs – runs 10% of his workforce – because it is shifting the focus to increasing rocket production and increasing launch frequency.
In an internal memo seen by business matters, Dave Limp of Blue Origin Dave Limping said that the job loss would reduce the management ranks and at the same time reduce the roles in research and development (R&D) and engineering. The decision follows on the first successful test flight of the company of his new Glenn Rocket, an important milestone in his space ambitions.
Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000, has been an important player in the private space industry, but is often better performed by rival SpaceX. The company is now restructuring to speed up the production and launch activities, with the aim of closing the gap with the dominant space company of Elon Musk.
“Our primary focus in 2025 and then to scale our production output and launch Cadence with speed, decisiveness and efficiency for our customers,” Limp told employees.
The cutbacks are part of a broader strategic shift that prioritizing the new Glenn Rocket, a powerfully heavy launch vehicle that is designed to bring large loads and satellites into space.
Named after John Glenn, the first American astronaut to turn the earth on the earth, New Glenn is designed to be more powerful than SpaceX’s Falcon 9, with a larger satellite capacity.
Bezos plans to use Nieuwe Glenn to support Project Kuiper, his ambitious plan to use thousands of low-earth Orbit satellites to offer global broadband services. The project is a direct competitor of the Starlink network of Musk, which is already strongly present in the satellite internet market.
The leadership of Blue Origin started in 2023, when Dave Limp-Formerly was appointed head of the Amazon CEO division to speed up the progress of the company. The new Glenn launch in January was a crucial step in proving the possibilities of Blue Origin, but there will remain challenges.
Despite his deep financial support from Bezos, Blue Origin has left behind SpaceX, which has a pioneer reusable missiles and works at a higher launch frequency.
By saving costs and moving resources to faster, more frequent launches, Blue Origin hopes to become a stronger competitor in the commercial space trace. However, the dismissals emphasize the challenges of balancing innovation with financial sustainability in an industry where efficiency and speed are the key.
While Blue Origin is repositioning itself, the success of New Glenn and Project Kuiper will be crucial to determine whether Bezos can really challenge the dominance of musk in space exploration and satellite services.