Nitin Arora Jumps Ship, Leaves Blue Origin Lunar Landing Program for SpaceX

Nitin Arora, Indian American lead engineer for Blue Origin’s lunar landing program. (Twitter photo/Nitin Arora)

India-West Staff Reporter

The Indian American lead engineer for Blue Origin’s lunar landing program, Nitin Arora, has jumped ship to join SpaceX.

SpaceX has a contract with NASA, which it netted earlier this year, to take astronauts to the moon.

Arora, the mission architecture and integration lead for Blue Origin’s Human Landing System, announced on LinkedIn Aug. 16 that he has taken a position at the Elon Musk-led company.

“It was one hell of a ride working on the lunar program,” Arora, who had been with Blue Origin since November 2018, said. “Really honored that I got a chance to work with and lead incredibly smart, passionate people over last three years. Special thanks to everyone who I worked with daily. I will miss you all. Next stop, SpaceX!”

NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.89 billion contract for its Starship human landing system in April. Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos filed a lawsuit in federal court Aug. 13 challenging the decision, after a protest with the Government Accountability Office over the procurement process was denied in July, according to reports.

The SpaceX lunar lander will be the final leg in a mission that will bring two astronauts to the surface of the moon using a NASA rocket and spacecraft.

Arora, a graduate of Punjab Engineering College (bachelor’s in civil engineering) and Georgia Tech (master’s and doctorate in aerospace), was a student research intern at the Indian Institute of Science earlier in his career.

He was also a research fellow at the University of Texas; student intern at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab; research/teaching assistant at Georgia Tech; and a systems engineer, mission formulation, at NASA JPL.