{"id":18358,"date":"2018-09-20T01:55:15","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T17:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/jeff-bezos-sells-the-air-force-on-blue-origin-rockets-and-amazon-web-services\/"},"modified":"2018-09-20T01:55:15","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T17:55:15","slug":"jeff-bezos-sells-the-air-force-on-blue-origin-rockets-and-amazon-web-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/jeff-bezos-sells-the-air-force-on-blue-origin-rockets-and-amazon-web-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Bezos sells the Air Force on Blue Origin rockets and Amazon Web Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_448714\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-448714\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-448714\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/180919-bezos3-630x357.jpg\" alt=\"Bezos and Spencer\" width=\"630\" height=\"357\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/180919-bezos3-630x357.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/180919-bezos3-768x435.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/180919-bezos3-1260x713.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/180919-bezos3.jpg 1848w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-448714\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, chats with retired Air Force Gen. Larry Spencer at the Air Force Association\u2019s annual conference at National Harbor, Md.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Billionaire Jeff Bezos made a subtle sales pitch for Amazon Web Services as well as the New Glenn rockets being built by his Blue Origin space venture today during a wide-ranging fireside chat at the Air Force Association\u2019s annual conference.<\/p>\n<p>But he stayed mum when it came to the first question asked by his partner on stage, retired Air Force Gen. Larry Spencer: Where will Amazon put its second headquarters, better known as HQ2?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll make a decision before the end of the year,\u201d Bezos said good-naturedly at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference at National Harbor, Md. \u201cThat\u2019s all I can say on that topic. We\u2019re excited to make that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The world\u2019s richest person was far more voluble about his philosophy on management, and how that applies to the things that the Air Force cares about. Speaking to an audience flush with military uniforms, Bezos said it\u2019s critical for the United States to maintain its dominance in the space domain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou never want a fair fight. \u2026 Outside of a boxing ring, a fair fight is just bad strategy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos said that Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket, which is expected to compete with SpaceX and United Launch Alliance for national security launches in the 2020s, could help the United States keep its advantage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have to be able to go to space more frequently, with less lead time,\u201d Bezos said.<\/p>\n<p>He compared the current state of affairs to a ground campaign in which troops could get to the battlefield only once a month, based on a schedule drawn up two years or more in advance. That would be \u201can impossible mission,\u201d Bezos said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of Blue Origin\u2019s missions is to make access to space more frequent, ready to go on a moment\u2019s notice, lower cost&nbsp;\u2014 which requires reusability. All those things are going to be required, in my view, to move into a new era of U.S. space dominance,\u201d Bezos said. \u201cAnd believe me, I don\u2019t have to tell you guys, you do not want to see that era end. That\u2019s a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Jeff Bezos at 2018 Air, Space and Cyber Conference\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PNUUuaveZ4g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Bezos said he planned to spend \u201cjust over a billion dollars\u201d on the New Glenn program next year, and that about $1 billion has already been invested in Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn factory and launch facility on Florida\u2019s Space Coast.<\/p>\n<p>On the subject of Blue Origin\u2019s BE-4 rocket engine, which is a crucial element for the New Glenn program, Bezos said only that \u201cthe test program is going very well, the team is doing a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There was nary a word said about SpaceX or its billionaire founder, Elon Musk. Instead, Bezos talked up Blue Origin\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n<p>Like the first stage on SpaceX\u2019s Falcon 9 rocket, New Glenn\u2019s first-stage booster is designed to land itself on an oceangoing platform. But Bezos said Blue Origin\u2019s landing ship would be in motion during touchdown, \u201cso we can stabilize it really well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bezos pointed to Blue Origin\u2019s suborbital-class New Shepard rocket as the model for&nbsp;reusable launch vehicles.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"callout clearfix\"><strong>Full transcript<\/strong>: \u2018Chief slowdown officer\u2019 Jeff Bezos shares Amazon management wisdom<\/h4>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t take the thing apart and inspect it between flights,\u201d he said. \u201cWe fly it over and over. If you build a space vehicle that you have to inspect in an intense way and disassemble and refurbish between flights, that\u2019s going to be more expensive than an expendable vehicle. It has to be real operational reusability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>New Shepard is still in its uncrewed testing phase, but Bezos said the craft \u201cwill be putting people in space this coming year.\u201d Earlier this year, Blue Origin had projected that flights with passengers might begin by the end of the year, but that now appears unlikely.<\/p>\n<p>In response to a question from Spencer, Bezos said it\u2019s key for the U.S. military to turn to commercial solutions whenever possible. That provided the perfect segue for Bezos to boost Amazon Web Services, which is seen as one of the leading choices for a $10 billion cloud computing contract the Pentagon is due to award.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re now seeing fantastic growth from both companies and government institutions, the CIA, the DOD, using our compute cloud instead of building their own systems,\u201d Bezos said. \u201cAnd the reason these companies are doing that \u2026 is because the capabilities they get keep improving, kind of automagically, without any effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bezos said that\u2019s because \u201cco-customers\u201d are constantly pressing for enhanced capabilities. \u201cIf you\u2019re the only customer for a software system, you\u2019re the only one driving it forward,\u201d he said. \u201cIf thousands of customers share that system, then the other 999 that are not you are also driving it forward, and you get that as a tailwind.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, chats with retired Air Force Gen. Larry Spencer at the Air Force Association\u2019s annual conference at National Harbor, Md. Billionaire Jeff Bezos made a subtle sales pitch for Amazon Web Services as well as the New Glenn rockets being built by his Blue Origin space [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[437,275,509,1046,439],"class_list":["post-18358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-air-force","tag-amazon","tag-blue-origin","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-military"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18358"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}