I'm impressed by the burn-rate of $1B for a company that isn't actively launching on a regular basis... Does anyone have any idea how much capital SpaceX sunk before it got its Falcon 1 up and running?
I think it was under a billion. Elon Musk recently estimated that just developing the re-use capability for F9 probably cost about a billion dollars. Not the whole rocket, just the extra cost of development, testing and infrastructure to make it reusable. New Glenn might be able to beat that if it goes directly to reusability, but then again it's a much bigger rocket.
Reading the headline my first impression was that the rocketry hobby now serves as a pretext to pull out of Amazon without making investors nervous. Does not really add up though, as Amazon isn't really bubbly enough and Bezos can't possibly want that much cash for other reasons than for shooting stuff into the sky.
