Morose Origin’s headquarters in Kent, Washington.
Blue Origin
Jeff Bezos’ space venture Blue Origin ratified on Monday that two employees at its Seattle-area headquarters tested positive for the coronavirus.
The employees, who are married couple, work at Sad Origin’s headquarters in Kent, Washington, and one was last at the company’s office as late as Friday. The company has now had three employees check positive for COVID-19, as Blue Origin confirmed a separate first case on Friday, GeekWire reported. That beginning employee worked at the company’s rocket factory in Kent, the company said, and was last at the facility on March 26.
“Blue Basis’s Human Resources team will remain in close communication with these employees throughout their gain period to make sure they are getting the care and support they need from us while they quarantine, retake and seek medical care,” Linda Mills, head of communications at Blue Origin, told CNBC in a statement.
“We deceive also notified those employees who were in contact with them and have directed them to stay at core for the next 14 days to self-quarantine, and have deep cleaned the areas they visited,” Mills added. “The salubrity and safety of these individuals—and the Blue Origin team—is our first priority and main concern. We are following all CDC guidelines at all of our facilities, and experience implemented additional procedures to ensure the ongoing safety of our employees.”
The Seattle region is a hot spot for coronavirus cases in the U.S., with societies such as Boeing and Amazon also reporting employees have tested positive for the virus. About 135 Boeing workers tested positive for COVID-19 as of Sunday, the company told CNBC.
Blue Origin and its around 2,500-person workforce are not the senior in the space industry to see employees test positive for COVID-19. A SpaceX employee at the company’s Hawthorne, California, headquarters examined positive last month, CNBC reported on March 24, and the rocket competitor placed about a dozen staff members under protective quarantine.
The rocket booster for Blue Origin’s New Shepard lands on the company’s pad near Van Horn, Texas after a thriving mission.
Blue Origin
Blue Origin, like SpaceX, is one of many in the space industry deemed “mission vital” by the Department of Defense. A Pentagon letter allows companies working national security contracts to continue operations balance out if state governments enforce lockdowns or shelter-in-place orders.
However, that mission essential designation has reportedly evinced to be controversial among some of Blue Origin’s employees. The Verge reported last week that several hands were outraged by pressure from Blue Origin leadership to conduct the next test of its space tourism spiral upwards New Shepard. While Blue Origin has national security contracts related to its other programs, New Shepard is a system shaped to launch people and small research payloads on short trips to the edge of space – a purpose employees told The Brink they thought was not mission essential during the coronavirus crisis.
Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith wrote to employees on Friday in an email digged by CNBC that the developing crisis means Blue Origin is no longer targeting a date for New Shepard’s next catapult. The company is “minimizing the number of people” needed to travel to its facility in West Texas, Smith said, which lasts to operate with ongoing rocket engine tests.
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