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Amazon.com and Top Secret Blue Origin

Dec 13, 2004 18: 07 EST
Previously published Oct 28, 2004 17: 52 EST

Yesterday we wrote about the new Space age entrepreneurs: Mostly Internet billionaires pouring their own cash into the projects. The heavy-weights of investing are Paul Allen of Microsoft and Amazon.com ($6 billion sales in books) founder Jeff Bezos (40).

Top Secret project wants You!

Jeff heads a top-secret project dubbed Blue Origin, founded in 2000, and "developing vehicles and technologies that, over time, will help enable an enduring human presence in space," according to his official website. Focus is on "liquid propulsion systems, low cost operations, life support, abort systems and human factors".

They are building a seven-person sub-orbital vehicle, and Jeff wants YOU!

Must have a genuine passion for space

"Blue Origin is actively hiring. Since June 2003, we've more than doubled the size of our Seattle-based design team. If you have a genuine passion for space and are excited by the prospect of building space hardware, we'd like to hear from you," they write, and continue: "Our hiring bar is unabashedly extreme, and we insist on keeping our team size small (measured in the dozens). This means the person occupying each and every spot must be among the most technically gifted in his or her field. You must have a genuine passion for space. Without passion, you will find what we're trying to do too difficult. There are much easier jobs."

We are building real hardware - not PowerPoint presentations

Another thing we like with these guys is that they embrace the magic of "Tech that works":
"We are building real hardware - not PowerPoint presentations. You must be a builder." They need engineers, of course but also generally talented individuals. "Please feel free to forward your resume to us even if you do not qualify. Our future holds many opportunities.."

Science fiction author staff in desolate Seattle warehouse

Blue Origin has released very few details regarding its development. One notable staff member is science fiction author Neal Stephenson ((“Snow Crash” and “Cryptonomicon”), who serves as a part-time advisor. HQ is in a 53,000-square-foot, one-story warehouse in a desolate part of Seattle.

Newsweek reported last year that the firm’s first planned spacecraft is called New Shepard – a tribute to Alan Shepard, the first American in space – and that the preliminary designs call for vertical takeoff and thrusters to control the ship’s vertical landing.

$US30 million

The cost of development is estimated at $US30 million. Engineers affiliated with the company were in Las Cruces, N.M., last year, exploring territory near the White Sands Missile Range for a possible launch pad.

The company is also funding scientists around the world who are researching unconventional propulsion systems like “wave rotors,” which regulate the fuel into pulse engines to lower the weight and cost of getting to space.

A 1986 Princeton University undergraduate with degrees in computer science and electrical engineering, Jeff spent a few years in NY in a back-office job at hedge fund operators before he moved to Seattle and founded Amazon.com in 1994 in a garage. Innovative, business savvy, with a buoyant personality and financial know-how, Jeff built personal worth of $4.3 billion (2004) - and did a stunt in Taco Bell commercials in 1991!

Image of Jeff compiled by ExWeb courtesy Businessweek and tfmweb.

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