Blue Origin, LLC
Leadership History
4 leaders · 2003 to present
Dave Limp is the CEO of Blue Origin, in the role since 2023. The first chief executive was Bob Smith, from 2017.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tory Bruno | President, National Security Group | 2026 | Present | < 1 |
| Dave Limp | Chief Executive Officer | 2023 | Present | 3 |
| Bob Smith | Chief Executive Officer | 2017 | 2023 | 6 |
| Rob Meyerson | President | 2003 | 2017 | 14 |
Blue Origin is the space company Jeff Bezos founded in 2000, two years before SpaceX, and kept largely out of public view for its first decade. Its long-range goal is millions of people living and working in space, with heavy industry moved off Earth. Day to day it is a rocket maker, engine supplier and NASA lunar contractor: New Glenn reached orbit in January 2025, the BE-4 engine powers ULA's Vulcan, and Blue Moon is one of the two landers NASA plans to use for Artemis. 2026 has been its busiest year, with New Shepard paused in January, a first booster reuse in April, a pad explosion in May and a first outside funding round in September. The company is headquartered in Kent, Washington.
Blue Origin earns money in four ways and reports none of them publicly. It sells New Glenn launches to commercial and government customers, including Amazon Leo (formerly Project Kuiper), AST SpaceMobile and NASA, and once the rocket is certified, the U.S. Space Force, which in April 2025 set aside up to seven national security missions worth about $2.4 billion. It sells BE-4 engines to United Launch Alliance, which uses two on every Vulcan. It is paid by milestone on NASA lunar contracts, chiefly the $3.4 billion Blue Moon human landing system award of May 2023 and a May 2026 Moon Base contract worth $234 million for each lunar terrain vehicle its Mark 1 lander delivers. Until January 2026 it also sold New Shepard suborbital seats and research payload slots; that program is paused for at least two years. The Wall Street Journal put 2025 revenue at about $800 million, with about $1.4 billion expected in 2026, figures the company has not confirmed. Two planned satellite networks, TeraWave for enterprise and government communications and Project Sunrise for computing in orbit, would add service revenue later in the decade.
President, National Security Group
2026 – Present
0 years (current)
Bruno fiercely criticized Blue Origin's agonizingly slow delivery of the BE-4 rocket engines, which severely delayed the highly anticipated launch of ULA's Vulcan Centaur rocket.
As the CEO of ULA (Blue Origin's most important client), his aggressive public pressure forced Blue Origin to completely overhaul its manufacturing processes to finally deliver flight-ready hardware.
Chief Executive Officer
2023 – Present
3 years (current)
Took over in December 2023 after running Amazon's devices and services business. He cut about 10 percent of staff in February 2025, oversaw New Glenn's first three flights, paused New Shepard in January 2026, and led the company's first outside funding round in 2026.
Chief Executive Officer
2017 – 2023
6 years
Former Honeywell Aerospace executive hired to turn Blue Origin into an operating business. His tenure included the first crewed New Shepard flights and the $3.4 billion NASA Blue Moon award, but New Glenn did not fly before he left.
President
2003 – 2017
14 years
Built Blue Origin from a small team into an aerospace company, leading early New Shepard and engine development. He became senior vice president of advanced development in 2018 and left that November.
Blue Origin's immediate problem is its only New Glenn pad. Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral was badly damaged when a rocket exploded during a static fire on May 28, 2026, and the company traced the failure to the main oxygen valve on one BE-4 engine. The pause holds up Amazon Leo, AST SpaceMobile and Blue Moon launches, and ULA, which flies a version of the same engine, needs the valve fix too. The April 2026 NG-3 upper-stage anomaly, which left an AST SpaceMobile satellite in the wrong orbit, also had to be resolved. After return to flight, Blue Origin still has to certify New Glenn for Space Force missions, hold NASA's 2027 and 2028 lunar dates, and grow from about $1.4 billion of expected 2026 revenue toward an internal target of more than $30 billion by 2030.
Dave Limp, since December 2023. He spent about 13 years at Amazon running devices and services, including Kindle, Echo and Alexa, and Project Kuiper.
He cut about 10 percent of staff in February 2025, got New Glenn to orbit in January 2025, paused New Shepard in January 2026, and led the first outside funding round in 2026.
Bob Smith, a former Honeywell Aerospace executive, from 2017 to 2023. His tenure included the first crewed New Shepard flights and the $3.4 billion NASA Blue Moon contract.
Blue Origin's president from 2003 to 2017, when it grew from a small team into an aerospace company. He ran advanced development in 2018 before leaving that November.
The former ULA chief executive was named president of Blue Origin's new National Security Group on December 26, 2025, and reports to Dave Limp.
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