Layoffs at Bigelow
Statement by Robert Bigelow Regarding Bigelow Aerospace Staff Reducations
“In December of 2015, we analyzed the amount of staff that we employed throughout all of our departments at Bigelow Aerospace, and discovered that numerous departments were overstaffed. Regrettably, we had to make the choice that, beginning with the New Year, we need to follow standard business protocols, which sensibly requires an attempt to achieve balance in how much staff is necessary. These layoffs will not compromise in any way our ability to execute the work and activities that we presently have ongoing.”
Crap. I’ve been wondering what will happen to them – getting a module aboard the ISS is obviously a big win, and even better would be if they got modules as part of a future planned base or space station.
Sadly, space is still a boom-or-bust business based on government dollars. We all want to see that change, but it’s kinda hard to sell space stations when all the countries that want one currently have them and there is very limited ways of reaching them today if you did have a new one.
Check the financial news; it’s Q1 – layoff season in many industries. Employers eval the staff and cut the deadwood, usually 8-12%
If they have 30% deadwood (and had 50% just four years ago), they have the worst HR department in the world. I seriously doubt a businessman as successful as Mr. Bigelow is that incompetent at hiring people. Whatever this is, it is definitely not merely a culling of the herd.
It is a curtailing of projects outside of current product rollout.
The wording of the statement seems to imply that they have rolled back R&D operations in favor of staffing what they can sell and fund right now. While I can understand the need to be solvent, I’m concerned that they’re compromising future projects.
So can we stop pretending that Falcon 9s are going to be sending Dragon capsules to a Bigelow inflatable space station anytime in the future?
These guys are years… YEARS… behind schedule. Last time they put anything in space was in June 2007… before Obama was even the Democratic nominee. BEAM is tiny, has been delayed and might never actually be entered by people once it is attached.
Who knows when they’ll do something post-BEAM. After 2020? Maybe another module thats like BEAM 2.0? For a space station that will be 25 years old by that point, Bigelow will have made use of it twice if they manage to do that. What a waste.
If I had to bet I’d say we’re far more likely to see SpaceX throw together a couple of modules on Falcons for a no-frills station of their own, before Bigelow builds a station of their own.
A lot of commercial space companies sprung up in the aughts. Most of them were paper-companies or had bad ideas (Excalibur Almaz anyone?). Most of them went away before too long. Out of that the few that mad it had variable amounts of success. Some thrived (SpaceX). Some did alright. Bigelow just lingered. For a while they had a real success in actually putting something into space with their Genesis prototypes. But that was nine years ago at this point. Where was SpaceX nine years ago? Still developing the Falcon 1.
Folks shouldn’t be romantic or hopeful about these guys. They’re a private company that doesn’t actually produce deliverables (no matter who interesting or good their approach is), the end.
Boeing and SpaceX are both currently on schedule for a 2017 crew launch debut.
Bigelow isn’t years behind schedule, their schedule had been put completely on hold, and even on hold they have continued to work on and improve their basic module. They’ve been playing the long game, waiting for a commercial crew vehicle to come on-line to service their commercial space station. I expect they will have a BA-330 in orbit by 2018 or 2019. Bigelow lingered because there’s a viable idea there. It survived the global economic crash because there’s still interest in what they are offering. The BEAM is a highly visible proof-of-concept that will only serve to generate further interest.
No, Bigelow Aerospace survived the global economic crash because Mr. Bigelow’s other businesses survived the crash and he is still interested in spending his personal fortune on his space hotel venture. So far, he is his only customer.
If there were zero interest in the company, it would have gone under. Maybe you forgot that NASA bought the BEAM for the ISS?
This statement is way off base. Robert Bigelow funds everything that occurs at this company out of his pocket. The soonest they could possibly be profitable would be something like 10 years from now… The BEAM is the first thing that has brought in more than 10-20K of revenue. This company is more of a hobby for him; and possibly just a tax-writeoff. This company has never turned a profit (or even come close, salaries are 5-10 million a year I’d guess not to mention the money for infrastructure, but that could possibly be resold for something; this guy knows his real estate). Bernardo understands the company in a way that you as an outsider cannot. He is correct. Bigelow has spent approx 500-700 million on the company in my opinion (and I have inside knowledge of the company) and has brought in revenues of approx 20 million I’d say. That would be detailed as 17 million for BEAM, 1-2 million for other NASA studies he has been contracted upon, and 10-50K on various commercial payments related to the Genesis I and II projects and flying commercial items to space. But he’s looking at the long-term and hopes to be selling these down the road. A very interesting turning point in the company will be when he is no longer able to run the company (he is over 70 yrs old); and whether those who take over or who inherited his fortune share his appetite for risk/hobbies in space and continue the venture. It certainly could go on the auction block at that time if they haven’t moved into a profitable business (which it may never be…).
Evidence and references please.
By 2013 Bigelow has spent $250m and he said he will spend the same amount more.
It isn’t a hobby. Bigelow Aerospace is simply trying to hold on until space taxis come on line in 2017.
With a fee of $26m for a 10-60 day round trip stay and with 5 users at a time, that is $780mill per year split between BA and the launch taxi service.
Each BA330 can become quite a cash cow with a high rate of return.
Interestingly, it was the new Huntsville propulsion facility that was shutdown.
http://digitalvideo.8m.net/…
That ties in exactly with my first conjecture above: They have devoted effort in space tugs, lunar and Martian habitats, gigantic space stations, etc…. “its time to poop or get off the pot.Time to strip down and focus efforts on the BA330 “
http://www.spaceflightinsid…
He says he is NOT building a hotel. Source your statement please.
Gee Jonathan. I think you’re a little overdue for your happy pill. Bigelow is in this for the long run. They’re just waiting for their taxi to show up.
Years behind schedule? Do you mean Bigelow should have launched a human rated habitat into LEO several YEARS before a human could be sent to it and do the required human maintenance?
It seems most are missing the crux of the matter. No crew transport so why should Bigalow be investing and developing his modules faster than necessary.
Crew flights to the ISS may start in 2017 so it’s pretty unlikely we’ll see any commercial flights before 2018. Bigelow has all the data he needs at present and development is being timed accordingly.
JM2CW
Cheers
I still think this tech is promising and has a place. It’s just a tough area to go commercial in. It’s not exactly a seller’s market.
The number I heard from a friend in the company was about 40 out of 140 employees. That’s almost 30%. Quite a “rebalancing”.
BeanCounterFromDownUnder has it right. There is no low-cost crew transportation and therefore there is no way to get to low-cost crew modules. While I’m still not convinced SpaceX will be able to financially achieve their lofty goals, I laud Elon for identifying enemy #1: cost of access. Solve that problem and Bigelow, Planetary Resources, and all the other visionary space ideas become feasible. It’s like the early days of electricity – why bother puting light bulbs in your house if you can’t get electricity to it in an affordable fashion?
That sounds about right. Remember this?
http://mobile.reuters.com/a…
Even if SpaceX can defy history and meet their most rosy cost projections, the prices they, Boeing, and Bigelow are putting out there for launch and on orbit ops are simply orders of magnitude too high to enable a viable tourist industry. The cost gap between supply and demand is simply unbridgeable with the technologies currently on the table.
The BA330 is not designed as a tourist hotel (altho one could reserve space for that). It is targeted for government and commercial researchers. The $26mill round trip all inclusive 90 day stay is cheap compared to ISS.
I am confused by your “orders of magnitude”. 2 orders of magnitude imply a $260K cost for a 90 day round trip into space. people are reserving tickets with VG for about 1/2 that for 15 minutes.
Unencumbered by the facts, let me venture some idle speculation.
Bigelow has been pushing along in all sorts of medium, long, and very long term projects.
They have devoted effort in space tugs, lunar and Martian habitats, gigantic space stations, etc.
Now, what they have to sell is the BA330 module, which should be available soon, and provides space station capability singly, or on any cluster of modules.
Commercial crew taxis are about to come on line, in the 2017 time frame. Bob Bigelow stepped off of his UFO and looked around and said, “its time to poop or get off the pot.Time to strip down and focus efforts on the BA300 and working with our partners Boeing and SpaceX, make the commercial and governmental sales. Get customers, book a falcon heavy, and start making money in 2018.”
Bigelow: “These layoffs will not compromise in any way our ability to execute the work and activities that we presently have ongoing.“
These layoffs may not be a sign of trouble, but actually a sign of opportunity about to take off.
http://www.airlinereporter….
Excellent analysis. Nice of him to visit Earth every so often.
How Bob Bigelow spends his spare change:
https://www.google.com/webh…
You gotta love that guy.
I would like to see a BA-330 attached to the ISS with multiple docking ports and NASA as the anchor tenant
More likely Mr. Big has been reading tea leaves– he has information that we don’t have, and when he evaluates the future he doesn’t see his space blobs in orbit.
His efforts are about 15 years too early, alas.