> I suppose having the backing of Amazon signals a certain level of success.

Blue Origin seems like a bit of a pathetic failure though.

Blue is run by Jeff directly, and has multiple internal cultural problems similar to Amazon, along with the fact that they just don't have the rocket tech that SpaceX has

Amazon is just an investor in Rivian, and I think based on how well the rivian prototypes held up in the show "long way up", they have a great shot at competing with Ford F150 lightning and the Tesla CyberTruck

> based on how well the rivian prototypes held up in the show "long way up"

You came away from that with a positive impression of the Rivians?

I guess we can say at least they didn't burst into flames...

But they did break, and one particular occasion stands out in my mind involving some inexplicably vulnerable low-hanging hydraulic reservoir striking a rock. For a truck it seemed like a pretty stupid red-flag design choice.

That sounds like a fixable problem that's not the core technology. Major legacy car makers have made mistakes thousands of times more stupid and dangerous.

That show made me swear off any Rivian in the future. They had the chance to cement themselves as cool pioneers, but looked like a jumbled mess that wasn't ready for primetime.

That was filmed over 2 years ago with prototype vehicles. Hard to expect the trucks didn't get incredibly better from the experience.

Calling private space company with a working rocket engine a failure is great sign of how far we've progressed in the last 2 decades.

Jeff just doesn't have the drive and in no rush, to him it is just a toy business, not a civilization advancing endeavor, so he is fine dealing with bridge-to-nowhere Boeing/Lockheed/etc.

That's literally the opposite of how Bezos has described the role of BO. He's said that BO is his most important work, more important than Amazon. The only reason he's dealing with the incumbents is because he's hired from them, and inherited their mgmt structure/methodology.

And how many of these "working rocket engines" has he shipped? Bueller?

why shipped? He flew his engines himself.

He flew on New Shepherd, which uses the BE-3 engines, which really isn't very suitable for orbital use. The BE-4 engine (roughly 4x more powerful) has been delayed for a long time.

Nonsense, in my opinion theatre doing very well for a later player on the stage. Compare this to rocketlabs or anyone else in the market and blue origin is already providing ARR generating services.

"a later player on the stage" - they were founded before SpaceX

Has Amazon actually done anything to back or signal their favor towards BO? IIRC, Kuiper is actually planning on using other launch providers

That's because they have no choice if they want to launch before Starlink has dominated the market. New Glenn is sooooo far behind schedule.

> backing of Amazon

and Ford