Jeff Bezos’ area firm Blue Origin advised workers Thursday it might lay off about 10% of its workforce.
The corporate has greater than 10,000 workers, with a significant presence on the House Coast at its rocket manufacturing facility adjoining Kennedy House Middle Customer Advanced the place it constructs its New Glenn rocket. The rocker had a profitable debut launch final month.
The variety of positions that might be affected in Florida was not introduced, nevertheless it additionally has main operations in Alabama, Texas and Washington the place the corporate is headquartered.
In a letter to workers obtained by the Orlando Sentinel despatched by firm CEO Dave Limp, he stated a lot of the workforce discount was attributable to extreme administration constructed up over the previous few years.
“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.
That would come with extra buildup of its New Glenn rockets that launch from Cape Canaveral House Power Station’s Launch Advanced 36, but in addition its smaller suborbital New Shepard rocket from Texas. The corporate additionally designs and can construct its new Blue Moon lunar lander at its Brevard County amenities.
“We grew and hired incredibly fast in the last few years, and with that growth came more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed,” Limp stated. “It also became clear that the makeup of our organization must change to ensure our roles are best aligned with executing these priorities.”
He stated the layoffs meant eliminating some engineering, analysis and improvement, and “thinning out our layers of management.”
Limp, a former Amazon government, took over the CEO position in late 2023. On the time, the corporate stated it had $10 billion in buyer orders and greater than 10,000 workers.
Regardless of the layoffs, Limp stated the corporate would truly proceed to rent tons of of positions to help the packages the place it should stay targeted.
“Let me add that I am extremely confident in the enormous opportunities in front of us and have never been more optimistic about our mission,” he stated. “We will be a stronger, faster, and more customer-focused company that consistently meets and exceeds our commitments.”
He stated 2025 stays bullish with a deliberate mission to land on the moon with a check model of Blue Moon and flying extra New Glenn and New Shepard missions.
New Glenn is seeking to grow to be licensed by House Power so it may possibly compete for profitable nationwide safety missions. It additionally has not less than 12 launches below contract with Amazon for its Venture Kuiper web satellite tv for pc constellation — the following concentrating on this spring.
“The impact this has is not lost on any of us — we are saying goodbye to our friends and colleagues who have helped us build Blue into what it is today,” he wrote.
That follows worries the Trump Administration might choose out of utilizing the expensive SLS rocket to perform future Artemis missions — however no program modifications have been introduced.
Boeing additionally introduced its intentions in late 2024 to put off 10% of about 170,000 workers nationwide. That included 141 amongst its Florida operations, residence to the place its Starliner spacecraft is manufactured in addition to its House and Launch Division headquarters.
