Like what? Having NASA as a customer? “Brand X would have died an early death if not for their best customer” doesn’t sound like a compelling argument.
Indeed. We have an excellent comparison between Blue Origin and SpaceX here:
- Both were started with similar high-level goals of improving access to space
- Both were founded at roughly the same time (BO was slightly earlier, but one could argue that they weren’t very serious at first)
- Bezos had far more resources than Musk at the time, and for most of its history
- Musk and Bezos are unarguably ruthless
- Both are hard on their employees. Though I’m not sure anyone at SpaceX has had to pee in a bottle.
- They both had access to the same talent pool
- They could both build factories and offices wherever they liked
- Bezos probably had a bit more lobbying power than Musk for most of their history, although neither one is comparable to traditional aerospace
And so on. It would be hard to find a closer comparison between two companies.
And yet here we are. BO has two products; an unreliable, suborbital joyride and an engine which they’ve shipped two units of. SpaceX in comparison has almost completely taken over the industry.
Why did SpaceX succeed but not BO? If you say “it’s the employees”, sure, but that just pushes the problem out: why did SpaceX get the good ones and not BO? It sure wasn’t pay. And luck just doesn’t last that long, especially in aerospace, which is totally unforgiving.
I have my own explanation but I’d like to hear yours.