MADRID, 26 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company, has hired Amazon executive Dave Limp as CEO following the resignation of Bob Smith, who will leave the company in early January after six years.
Bezos has informed the Blue Origin staff that Limp will assume the position of CEO on December 4, living with Smith in the company until January 2 in order to guarantee a “smooth transition”, according to several internal emails released. by the American network CNBC.
Limp, senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon, announced last August that he would leave the company after more than 13 years, a period in which he coincided with Jeff Bezos, founder of the e-commerce giant and its CEO for 27 years. , until in 2021 he left his position to undertake new projects.
“I have worked closely with Dave for many years. He is the right leader at the right time for Blue. He joins us after almost 14 years at Amazon,” Bezos stressed in his internal communication to employees.
“With pride and satisfaction for everything we have achieved, I announce that as of December 4, I will cease to be CEO of Blue Origin. I will remain at Blue until January 2 to ensure a smooth transition with the new CEO,” he said. , for his part, Bob Smith, who joined Bezos’ aerospace company six years ago.
Last May, NASA selected Blue Origin to produce a second lunar lander for astronauts – the first is from SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company – that flies between surface and lunar orbit, within the Artemis Program.
Blue Origin will design, develop, test and verify its Blue Moon lander to meet NASA’s human landing system requirements for recurring astronaut expeditions to the lunar surface, including docking with Gateway, a space station where the crew is transferred into lunar orbit.
In addition to the design and development work, the contract Blue Origin reached with NASA includes an unmanned demonstration mission to the lunar surface before a manned demonstration on the Artemis V mission in 2029. The total value of the contract award was to 3,400 million dollars (about 3,213 million euros at the current exchange rate).
The agency previously hired billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX to demonstrate an initial human landing system for the Artemis III mission.
“Having two different lunar landing designs, with different approaches to how to meet NASA’s mission needs, provides more robustness and ensures a regular cadence of landings on the Moon,” Lisa Watson-Morgan, NASA’s Moon Landing Director, said last May. manager of the Human Landing System Program at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
