![]() Recommended by user Joe Trejo.Īnymouse - A lockbox on Navy ships where sailors may drop anonymous suggestions.Īss - Armored vehicles such as Strykers and Tanks.Īte-Up - Describes a service member who follows regulations so closely that they disregard the context of the situation. This allowed satellite operators to book a cheaper launch on the Falcon 9 rocket and shift more responsibility to the satellite's electric propulsion for orbit raising.40 Mike-Mike - An M203 grenade launcher, usually mounted under an M-16 or similar weapon.Īir Picket - Any airborne system tasked with detecting, reporting and tracking enemy aerial movements within a certain area of operation.Īlpha Charlie - Military alphabet used to represent ass chewing. In response to this, satellite companies increased the performance of their satellites' on-board propulsion to reach their desired orbits. Before the mid-2010s, the Falcon 9 booster had significantly lower performance than the Ariane 5 rocket. One example demonstrated how important price was to customers. SpaceX did this by pricing its Falcon 9 rocket about 50 percent below the market leader in this area, the European launch company Arianespace and its Ariane 5 rocket. We need to change this culture."Īvascent noted that the Falcon 9 rocket, during the 2010s, had captured a large share of the market to launch satellites to geostationary orbit. 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). In many cases we view the customer as a nuisance. "They have a customer focus," a Blue Origin executive wrote in response. The consultants identified SpaceX as having a strong emphasis on satisfying customers, seeking to provide desirable services at a lower cost. (Material appearing in parentheses was added by Ars for clarification.) Because the comments are candid, and made in private, Ars will not publish the notes in full, nor attach names to individual comments. 1, 2018, under the heading: "Avascent Briefing Notes from Senior Team."Įach section of the story below describes an area that Avascent identified as a strength at SpaceX and highlights comments from senior leaders responding to that strength-or identifying ways Blue Origin could improve. These nine pages of notes were then compiled and delivered to Smith on Nov. And as part of the exercise, they wrote down takeaways from the meeting as well as ideas for Blue Origin to better compete with SpaceX. Those dozen or so senior managers took notes. ![]() So in the late summer of 2018, as Bob Smith marked his first anniversary as chief executive of Blue Origin, he hired a management consulting firm called Avascent to assess SpaceX's strengths and weaknesses.Īfter the firm completed its analysis, the senior leadership team at Blue Origin received a briefing. But they realized that if Blue Origin was going to become a great launch company, it should learn from the best. These were not easy facts for Blue Origin's leadership to contemplate. "Blue is kind of lazy compared to SpaceX," one Blue Origin executive admitted in an internal memo in late 2018. By the fall of 2018, SpaceX was well on its way to launching a record 21 rockets in a single year, had debuted the Falcon Heavy, and was starting to seriously reuse first stage boosters. Meanwhile, the rocket company founded by Bezos' rival, Elon Musk, had established itself as the most dominant launch company in the world. ![]() With Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos had long talked about building a world-class space transportation company and had even gone so far as to trademark "Build a Road to Space." But despite being nearly two decades old, Blue Origin had not built a road to space, nor even launched an orbital rocket. Aurich Lawson | Getty Images reader comments 553 withĪbout three years ago, Blue Origin officials knew they were behind, failing to deliver on their founder's grandiose vision. ![]()
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