They gambled on how much taxpayer money they could squeeze out of a government agency and lost. The fuss they're making about it now is just adding to the embarassment. I welcome competition in the private sector, but I have lost all sympathy for Blue Origin at this point.
This is all just shockingly short-sighted for a guy who started with an online bookstore and turned it into the Amazon we know now plus AWS, etc.
This isn't a one-shot thing - even if SpaceX wins and lands folks on the moon, that's going to lead to a research facility there. You know what a research facility needs? More people going to and from the moon.
It's still so incredibly early in this industry that every success is a rising tide that raises all boats by creating more opportunity in the future. Bezos is making himself look like a petulant child while slowing down the industry as a whole, which is only going to hurt him in the long run.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 18.6 ms ] threadThis isn't a one-shot thing - even if SpaceX wins and lands folks on the moon, that's going to lead to a research facility there. You know what a research facility needs? More people going to and from the moon.
It's still so incredibly early in this industry that every success is a rising tide that raises all boats by creating more opportunity in the future. Bezos is making himself look like a petulant child while slowing down the industry as a whole, which is only going to hurt him in the long run.
Was this just "get money from government, fail, keep money" plan of government funding? Although usually that's the underbid strategy.
Maybe they thought they had an inside track with key, uh, lobbying and uh, donations.