SpaceX is coming to Boeing’s rescue.
The legacy company needing help from a new competitor is hardly welcome news for the aerospace giant.
Due to problems with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, two astronauts who rode it to the International Space Station in June will finally return to Earth in a craft built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
NASA’s announcement Saturday of that plan represents a blow — even a humiliation — to Boeing, a longtime partner of the US space agency.
It couldn’t come at a worse time for Boeing. The sterling reputation its planes have long enjoyed has been severely eroded by a series of malfunctions and two fatal accidents in recent years.
“It’s not a good time for Boeing,” Erik Seedhouse, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told AFP.
Economists push back on Harris rate hike plan
For Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams, the astronauts who flew to the ISS on the Starliner, having to return on a SpaceX craft is “very upsetting,” he added.
“It’s an image problem,” agreed Cai von Rumohr, an aeronautics analyst with TD Cowen, adding that it “could jeopardize future contracts with NASA.”
But Boeing’s status and mammoth size give it considerable ability to recover.
“I don’t think Boeing is going anywhere,” said Glenn Lightsey, a professor at the Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech University.
Boeing has incurred about $1.6 billion in cost overruns in developing the Starliner, which has been hit by repeated development delays and price increases linked to supply chain problems.
But to put that in context, Boeing’s Defense, Space and Security division had revenue of $24.93 billion in 2023 — while the company as a whole had revenue of $77.79 billion.
New Coppola Movie Trailer With Ax To Use Fake Movie Reviews
“Yes, they can recover, because they are juggernauts,” said Sandhouse.
Regaining confidence
Despite repeated delays to the Starliner program, NASA has never suggested weakening the partnership with Boeing since it first placed orders for space taxis in 2014 from both Boeing and SpaceX.
The US space agency has repeatedly insisted that its goal is to have two vehicles to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS, a kind of insurance plan in case one runs into trouble.
What Boeing needs to do to regain confidence, Seedhouse said, is to “fix all these problems and have a successful re-flight sometime next year, probably, with another crew on board.”
The company insisted that the two problems Starliner faced — helium leaks and a faulty propulsion system — can be fixed.
Such problems aren’t a “huge surprise,” Lightsey said, adding that “it’s still early development for Starliner.”
The craft has undergone three orbital tests, two of them unmanned.
Divers from Sicily search for tycoon’s daughter after super yacht sinks
“It’s really only after you get five missions under your belt” that you “know how everything is going to behave in space,” he added.
“Even if it takes a few more flights, I don’t expect NASA to give up.”
Tough comparison
The comparison between Boeing and SpaceX’s competing programs is, however, embarrassing for the older and much larger company.
Musk’s company was widely seen as an underdog in 2014 and received $2.6 billion for the project, compared to Boeing’s $4.2 billion.
However, for the past four years it has been the only means for astronauts to travel to and from the ISS.
SpaceX has had an advantage from the start: its Dragon spacecraft has been refueling the ISS since 2012.
But Boeing, for its part, has a long history with NASA, with decades of work in the US space program.
“They were involved with the Apollo program; they built some of the modules on the space station,” Seedhouse said.
Nestle shares fall after surprise CEO exit
“So it’s surprising that, in such a short period of time … they’ve gone from a company that performed very well to a company that was making mistakes left, right and center.”
He said there was no reason for the serial failures, but that “the problems with standards and quality control” at Boeing “apply to the spacecraft side as well as the aircraft side.”
Because of its size, Seedhouse said, Boeing is inherently more bureaucratic than SpaceX, where decisions can be made quickly.
But the dynamic could change one day.
At some point in the future, Lightsey said, “SpaceX will need help and Boeing will be able to return the favor.
“I guess everything will come full circle eventually.”
Source: AFP