from the one-standard-of-safety-for-me-and-another-for-SpaceX dept.
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin: Allegations of safety issues at company
The US Federal Aviation Authority[sic][*] (FAA) has said it will review safety concerns raised by whistleblowers at Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space company.
The announcement comes after 21 current and former employees claimed the company had ignored safety concerns to gain an advantage in the space race.
Staff also complained of a culture of sexism within the company.
Blue Origin rejected the charges and said it stands by its safety record.
[...] Raising concerns over the standard of the company's flagship New Shepard rocket, which Mr Bezos travelled into space on in July, the essay writers said: "In the opinion of an engineer who has signed on to this essay, 'Blue Origin has been lucky that nothing has happened so far'."
[...] The FAA, which regulates rocket launches in the US, said that it "takes every safety allegation seriously, and the agency is reviewing the information".
In addition to the safety concerns, staff also claimed that the company's management embraces a "particular brand of sexism" under which numerous managers and senior staff displayed consistently inappropriate behaviour towards women.
[*] Federal Aviation Administration.
I'm sure the New Shepard joyride for rich people meets the same high safety standards as other amusement park rides.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 01 2021, @10:36PM (1 child)
Blue Origin fired a senior executive, citing inappropriate behavior. Current and former employees say it’s part of the company’s toxic culture. [washingtonpost.com]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @01:25AM
Amazon is a hosting and technology company. This shows that all nerds and dorks are incels and misogynerds.
Only the real men at Boeing can save us from the Musky cuddle puddle couch.
(Score: 2, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday October 01 2021, @11:42PM (15 children)
That's a sore spot with me. If I take my family to the coast, and everyone sticks a toe in the water, can they claim to have gone to sea? Phhhht.
Safety? With no details, it's impossible for you or me to evaluate the story. Why didn't they publish the letter to the FAA?
Sexism? Hang 'em high! Especially the one who groped an employee. Just hang 'em and they won't grope anyone, ever again. Of course, we would have to all agree on what sexism is. Yeah, the guy doing the groping has definitely crossed the line. On the other hand, some snowflakes are offended if you notice that they have a gender. Maybe we need to examine each instance before we start hanging?
Nahhh, forget it. We haven't had a mass hanging in decades. I'll get started buiding a gallows!
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by Tork on Saturday October 02 2021, @12:37AM (2 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 02 2021, @12:57AM (1 child)
You can probably catch one on your tongue.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @04:03AM
Who the hell wants you on their tongue?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @01:21AM (1 child)
The letter was meant for public consumption. The FAA is investigating claims that were sent to them, which may include ITAR restricted material so it can't be published.
Someone called raspera over at nasaspaceflight claims to be ex Blue Origin and had a few things to say about the allegations:
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=53979.msg2295809#msg2295809 [nasaspaceflight.com]
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @01:31AM
The real men of Boeing Origin know how to treat a woman right, unlike those musky SpaceX dudebros.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday October 02 2021, @01:35AM
Would you also need a definition of hung [youtu.be]?
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday October 02 2021, @01:37AM
We can all sing along [dailymotion.com] when it happens, too!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @01:38AM (5 children)
Since when did you become a promoter of radical sex-negative feminism?
Would you agree that rape has become normalized in today's decadent world? That we presently live in some kind of rape culture that is dominated by effeminate soy boys who don't spend enough time having sex with women and need to be whupped by a strong alpha male like you think you are?
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Saturday October 02 2021, @02:17AM (1 child)
I suppose that if several dozen women are raped on a monthly basis in your neighborhood, then you probably live in a rape culture. Maybe you should move to a better neighborhood?
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @03:46AM
So you're ok with rape admit that the gallows will not in fact be used on rapists?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @06:45AM (2 children)
You have that completely backwards. Rape was far more normalized in the past. Not just in war either, where it was considered standard booty. Read some old literature, or even old movies up to the sixties and watch what happens in the background to see what was considered normal. Grabbing, groping and ass patting abound. Chasing a secretary round the desk used to be a joke, these days it would be sexual assault and attempted rape. Go back a bit further, an unaccompanied woman was considered fair game. 200 years ago, what Weinstein and Epstein were doing would have got them the equivalent of high fives, not jail. Even further back, the word "seduction" used to mean basically "catch her alone, hold her down and stick it in".
(Score: -1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @04:01PM (1 child)
On the watch of sex-negative feminism, sexual assault is on the rise, and abortion is going away.
The fact is that we are returning to the world you've decried, and sex-negative feminism is ineffective against it.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 03 2021, @03:29AM
The apparent incidence may be rising, but the reality is that it is simply more incidents now qualify. If you went back fifty years and counted all the ass pats and titty grabs as sexual assault the rate would far dwarf what it is today. Your "rising rate" is because the rate fifty years ago probably only included vicious rapes, and evidence is that only a small proportion of them were reported. These days things that would have been ignored are now included in the stats.
It would be like saying more people these days are tall when you keep lowering the the height to be tall by an inch per year.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @12:50PM
The Taliban is strong in this one...
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday October 04 2021, @02:56PM
Well, more like hopping in a dinghy, paddling out a ways, and coming back.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Friday October 01 2021, @11:55PM (2 children)
There are limits to what plans and procedures can do. There needs to be an organization-wide understanding that people can report problems without retaliation.
Even problems that they caused. See this classic story about von Braun rewarding honesty:
https://appel.nasa.gov/2010/02/25/ao_1-6_f_mistakes-html/ [nasa.gov]
Break lines of communication, put schedule ahead of everything else, and safety problems will infest the whole program.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @12:48AM
Gave you a +1 for the link, great story that I had not seen before.
My job doesn't normally involve life and limb, but once it did. I made sure that everyone on that project (including techs and mechanics) was encouraged to note every little detail of the test work that we did--no blame, no shame if a mistake was made. Keep careful notes and report every detail to be reviewed later. It all worked out fine in the end.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by krishnoid on Saturday October 02 2021, @02:00AM
Don't forget that structural engineer's discovery and disclosure of the Citicorp building's shortcomings [onlineethics.org].
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 01 2021, @11:58PM (6 children)
Hire a few blue-hairs in HR and let 'em loose.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @12:09AM (2 children)
That works if you want the rocket company to implode.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @12:50AM
Better for the rocket company to implode than explode. The latter tends to take everything nearby with it, including the customers...
See thread above about corporate culture.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @03:48PM
The trick is that sex-negative anti-Musky blue haired ones are promoted because sections of the bourgeoisie have this fantasy that they can philosophize gender and sexuality away. According to them, the id must be repurposed away from sexual activity (which they say is only good for reproduction anyway, and combine that with Malthus) and towards imperialist violence on the other side of the planet, towards "great power competition," towards WW3, the irradiation of the planet's surface and the (hopefully only near) extinction of humanity.
Yet sex-negative feminism is too pathetic to succeed, because the especially tragic part is that the Runaway up there is better at advancing radical sex-negative feminism to its logical conclusion than they ever will be. What argument will sex-negative feminism advance against the eventual Republican Women's League [wikipedia.org]? What kind of sociology is involved in the idea that we can put women up on a pedestal, continue brutalizing men, and somehow achieve a society with free no-cost access to abortion?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @04:12AM
Yeesh, real shallow stupidity going on from the rightwing that champions stupid. /uwutm8
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 03 2021, @12:38PM (1 child)
Please explain, the term is ungooglable
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 04 2021, @01:31AM
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Blue%20Hair [urbandictionary.com]
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Danger%20Hair [urbandictionary.com]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @06:24AM
BBC - are UK based where the equivalent body might be called the Civil Aviation Authority. So the newbie typed what they're used to in the UK context, without looking up what FAA really stands for. Sloppy, yes. The most likely cause is that the boss was screaming "hurry up, where is that article" in the hallway, while the article was hastily being assembled. Let's please blame the boss and deadline pressures here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @03:36PM (3 children)
I don't like Jeff Bezos any more than the next dude, but I'm starting to see a pattern of anti-Amazon/Blue Origin/Jeff Bezos stories about how he slapped babies, pissed in his mother's coffee cup and dropped a deuce on his neighbor's front porch to start thinking that there's an organized propaganda program of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Who's paying for these stories to be written?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @04:31PM
Not amazon or bezos, because /they/ are paying /you/ to sow FUD about the reporting...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @06:29PM
There's overt negative PR campaigns that work that way, and then there are those who act on their own accord. The latter, usually derided as "fanbois," have bought into that "moving humanity forward," "his only goal is Mars" yarn that gets spun where they willing look the other way at his behavior on matters such as stock price manipulation, crypto manipulation for personal gain, cronyism (buying a failing Solar City at a grossly overvalued price because it was in financial trouble and his cousin owned it, then lied about it to his shareholders), etc., etc., etc. But they swallow the "For All Mankind" bullshit as quickly as an evangelican Christian full-throatedly supports Trump while gladly overlooking all the gross violations of nine of the Ten Commandments. Like Trump was to Putin, these "Muskie Bros" are useful idiots to Musk. As an exercise to the reader, you can make up your own mind how many post here. I argue the number is greater than zero, but others might disagree.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 02 2021, @07:15PM
This has been building for quite a while. Blue Origin fans (and employees) are frustrated by the lack of progress, SpaceX fans have long been annoyed by the obstructionism, and ULA fans are unhappy with the lack of engines, but what really set things off was the HLS lawsuit. He's actually trying to kill the moon program because he lost a bid, and that has most* of the space community up in arms. The complaint in the article was most likely timed to take advantage of the backlash.
*Boeing is probably the lone exception. Any delay to SLS means more money in their pockets, so if Artemis is cancelled they can spend a decade redesigning for a different mission again.