The Orbital Reef space station partnership between Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Sierra Space is on rocky footing, CNBC has learned.
and new leader Dave Limp will need to execute on other major projects – including its New Shepard and New Glenn rockets, as well as its BE-4 engine production.
Similarly, much of Sierra's resources are devoted to getting the initial cargo variation of its reusable Dream Chaser spaceplane flying. It has been developing Dream Chaser for more than a decade, under contract to fly cargo for NASA to the International Space Station.and hopes to fly Dream Chaser to the ISS for the first time next year.
There have been signs the Orbital Reef project was unraveling: The website for the project, created jointly by Blue and Sierra, hasn't published an update on the station's development in more than a year. As of Thursday, neither company's careers websites have job openings that mention"Orbital Reef," despite having dozens of listings mention the project in the past.
From NASA's viewpoint, changes to the structure or involvement of different companies in the first phase of a project like this one are not surprising. For example, Northrop Grumman didn't rejoin Blue Origin's team when the company bid a second time for a crew lunar lander. And, more relevant to the CLD program, another space station project called Starlab saw Airbus take the place of Lockheed Martin as the core habitat's builder.
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