Safety Culture in the News

Safety Culture in the News

Blue Origin is taking William Shatner to space — but can it distract from internal criticism?

thehill.com/opinion/t…

William Shatner, famous for his role as Captain James Kirk in “Star Trek,” is going for a ride on the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket. However, recent allegations by a group of current and former Blue Origin employees may make him think again of going on a 10-minute suborbital hop into the final frontier.

Writing for the Lioness, Alexandra Abrams and 20 other current and former Blue Origin employees describe an alleged toxic corporate culture at Blue Origin rife with sexism, sexual harassment and favoritism. However, one item that may concern Shatner and the other three people who will be riding the New Shepard into space on Oct. 12, is whether the New Shepard is as safe as it could be.

“In the opinion of an engineer who has signed on to this essay, ‘Blue Origin has been lucky that nothing has happened so far.’ Many of this essay’s authors say they would not fly on a Blue Origin vehicle.” The article makes a reference to the dysfunctional safety culture that existed at NASA just prior to the Challenger disaster. In response to the article, the FAA has opened an investigation. On the other hand, New Shepard has launched and landed 17 times with only one partial failure that would not have resulted in loss of life had there been a crew in the capsule.

ADVERTISEMENT The notion that Blue Origin’s corporate culture is toxic would tend to explain why the company is experiencing such a high turnover. According to a story in CNBC, the uptick in resignations has been directly attributed to the leadership of Bob Smith, the CEO handpicked by owner Jeff Bezos.