WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) – Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, expects to break up a corporate partnership formed years ago to build a commercial space station, reassigning staff and changing leadership as it adapts to more urgent priorities, according to several people familiar with the changes.
Earlier this year, the company reassigned a majority of its employees working on Orbital Reef, a commercial space station it had planned to build with Sierra Space, according to three sources familiar with the moves.
The staff went to other programs such as Blue Origin’s new moon lander contract with NASA and a closely held in-space mobility project, the sources said.
A Blue Origin spokesperson said Sierra will remain a partner on Orbital Reef but declined to say in what capacity.
The shakeup of the Orbital Reef team shows the rocky state of industry plans to build a private replacement to the two decade-old International Space Station (ISS), the work of multiple government space agencies that has cost more than $100 billion.
The head of Blue Origin’s Advanced Development Programs that oversees Orbital Reef, Brent Sherwood, plans to leave the company by the end of the year, two sources said. The company said Sherwood is retiring.
The sources spoke on the condition they not be identified as the changes have not been disclosed publicly. CNBC had reported that the partnership was in question, but had no details on the staff reassignments or Sherwood’s departure.
Amazon.com (AMZN.O) founder Bezos, who started Blue Origin in 2000, has been looking to inject a sense of urgency into the company as some important programs face steep hurdles.
Last week, Bezos told Blue Origin employees that longtime Amazon executive Dave Limp would replace Blue Origin’s current CEO by year’s end.
The company’s suborbital tourist rocket, New Shepard, has been grounded for more than a year after a 2022 accident. Delays are also mounting in the development of its bigger rocket, New Glenn, an expected commercial workhorse that will mark Blue Origin’s first, long-awaited step into Earth’s orbit.
In 2021, Blue Origin announced its partnership to build what it envisions as a “business park in space” with Sierra Space, a spinoff from defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corp. In low Earth orbit, Orbital Reef would function as a microgravity science laboratory for companies and government agencies, and a destination for tourists, among other uses.
A month after the announcement, Sierra announced a series A fundraising worth $1.4 billion. It said a third of that total would fund its contributions to Orbital Reef: an inflatable habitat that formed the livable core of the space station’s design.
Recently the partnership has soured, with feuding and disagreement between the companies’ managements, three sources said.
A Sierra Space spokesperson declined to comment.
Some Blue Origin employees who had worked on Orbital Reef were assigned to a secretive ”space mobility”…
Source from www.reuters.com