![]() He brought the concerns to Michael Stevens, VP of safety and mission assurance the complaint says that Stoker was “brushed off.” In August, Stoker sent another email to leadership raising concerns that nine people on the engine team were working “24+” hour shifts to ensure the engine was delivered to customer United Launch Alliance on time. Stoker learned that a fellow employee had nearly asphyxiated while working under an engine nozzle just a few months after formally filing his complaint. When Stoker inquired into a separate investigation into Smith’s behavior, Plunkett told him that it had been closed and Smith was receiving “coaching.” ![]() TechCrunch contacted Blue Origin for comment and will update the story if they respond. ![]() The hostile work environment . . . is creating a safety and quality hazard for our people, products and customers.” “We spend significant time smoothing things over, building back morale, repairing damage, stopping people from overreacting. “Myself, my leadership team and others throughout the company should not have to constantly apologize and make excuses to ourselves and our teams for the CEO’s bad behavior,” the email states. Stoker sent a follow-up email to the two VPs - Linda Cova, VP of the engines business unit, and Mary Plunkett, senior VP of human resources - that included a formal complaint against Smith. It includes a detailed narrative about program manager Craig Stoker’s efforts over seven months to escalate his concerns about safety and a hostile work environment at Blue Origin.Īllegedly, Stoker told two VPs in May 2022 that then-CEO Bob Smith’s behavior caused employees “to frequently violate safety procedures and processes in order to meet unreasonable deadlines.” Smith would “explode” when issues would arise, generating a hostile work environment, the complaint says. The complaint was filed on Monday in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. The decision to award the contract to Blue Origin was perceived as part of Nasa’s efforts to avoid over-reliance on SpaceX rockets and to encourage competition in the private spaceflight sector.The former program manager of Blue Origin’s BE-4 rocket engines has filed a lawsuit against the company alleging whistleblower retaliation after he spoke up about safety issues. The rocket's first flight was originally scheduled for late 2021, but this was pushed back until at least August 2024. That mission will use the firm’s New Glenn rocket, which has been designed to compete with SpaceX's Falcon Heavy. Its engine is also fuelled by liquid oxygen and hydrogen, and the only by-product during flight is water vapour with no carbon emissions.ĭespite recent setbacks, Blue Origin was awarded its first interplanetary Nasa contract for a mission to study the magnetic field around Mars earlier this year. The programme has also completed six astronaut missions and flown 31 humans above the Kármán line – the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space.īlue Origin noted that nearly 99 per cent of New Shepard’s dry mass is reused, including the booster, capsule, engine, landing gear and parachutes. The launch was New Shepard’s 24th flight and 13th payload mission. The flight was going to take place the day before but was scrubbed at the last minute due to a “ground system issue”. “Demand for New Shepard flights continues to grow and we’re looking forward to increasing our flight cadence in 2024.” “A special thank you to all of our customers who flew important science today and the students who contributed postcards to advance our future of living and working in space for the benefit of Earth,” said Phil Joyce, senior vice-president, New Shepard. ![]() ![]() Yesterday’s flight carried 33 payloads from Nasa, academia, research institutions and commercial companies, bringing the number of payloads flown on New Shepard in total to more than 150. The Jeff Bezos-founded space firm had to abort a New Shepard rocket launch last year mid-flight due to a propulsion failure. Blue Origin has successfully retrieved its booster and crew capsule after completing its 24th mission – its first in over a year. ![]()
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