The
FAA said in September it would review safety concerns raised by
former Blue Origin employees. The FAA said on Friday it was
closing its investigation after finding "no specific safety
issues" and was taking no action against billionaire Jeff Bezos'
space company.
Alexandra Abrams, former head of Blue Origin Employee
Communications, and 20 other unnamed Blue Origin employees and
former employees, said in an essay they had "seen a pattern of
decision-making that often prioritizes execution speed and cost
reduction over the appropriate resourcing to ensure quality."
A Blue Origin spokesperson did not immediately comment Friday
but said in September Abrams "was dismissed for cause two years
ago after repeated warnings for issues involving federal export
control regulations."
Abrams told CBS News, which first reported the allegations, she
never received any warnings related to export control issues.
In July, Bezos soared some 66.5 miles (107 km) above the Texas
desert aboard a New Shepard launch vehicle in a suborbital
flight.
Blue Origin said in September it stood "by our safety record and
believe that New Shepard is the safest space vehicle ever
designed or built."
The essay said a 2018 team at Blue Origin "documented more than
1,000 problem reports related to the engines that power Blue
Origin’s rockets, which had never been addressed."
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and
Chizu Nomiyama)
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