February 13, 2025 – Blue Origin, the commercial space company founded by Jeff Bezos, is preparing for significant layoffs as part of a strategic pivot aimed at reducing R&D costs and focusing on ramping up rocket launches. The announcement comes after years of extensive research and development, with the company now looking to streamline operations.
In a company-wide virtual meeting this morning, CEO Dave Limp notified employees of a 10 percent reduction in the company’s workforce or about 1400 employees. Limp attributed the cuts to a strategic realignment of the company, shifting the focus from research and development (R&D) to actual launch operations. “We just came to the painful conclusion that we aren’t set up for the kind of success that we really wanted to have,” Limp told employees in the meeting announcing the layoffs.
Some sources are reporting that the cuts were “across the board.” The company, headquartered in Washington State, maintains launch facilities in Florida and Texas, engine facilities in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as other facilities in Virginia, Colorado, California, Arizona, and Washington DC.
As as relatively young commercial spaceflight company, Blue Origin is working to meet their obligations to provide launch vehicles under NASA Artemis contracts, as well as providing commercial launch services for Bezo’s other company, Amazon. Amazon is currently building their own satellite internet service known as Project Kuiper. Set to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink, the first few Kuiper launches have been contracted their first few launches with other companies, such as ULA.
Bezos has said on social media that he is currently focused on the next launch of the company’s New Glenn heavy-lift rocket, which he anticipates will happen in late spring. The company’s first-ever New Glenn launch took place last month. While the launch and orbital testing was successful, the booster was lost in a landing attempt onboard a drone ship.
By contrast, SpaceX has now chalked up numerous launches and successful booster returns with both their Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, seemingly adding pressure on competitor Blue Origin to pick up a comparatively lethargic launch pace.
Meanwhile, Blue Origin employees, who were notified to “remain at home” during today’s first shift, are awaiting to be notified of who did and didn’t make the cut. Those notifications are expected today, and will likely weigh heavily on the R&D segment of the workforce.
