By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON Blue Origin's senior vice president of operations is leaving "for personal reasons," according to an internal email seen by Reuters, the third executive departure to be disclosed in less than a month at Jeff Bezos' space company as it aims to sharpen its competitive footing with Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith told employees in an email on Friday that Mike Eilola, the company's senior vice president of operations since 2021, "is leaving the company for personal reasons" on Nov. 3 and will have his unit split into two new organizations.

The company did not immediately return a request for comment.

(Reporting by Joey Roulettel Editing by Will Dunham)