Eric Berger:
NASA will pay Boeing more than twice as much as SpaceX for crew seats
But incredibly, Boeing is probably losing money:
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Yep, that's what happens when a competent disruptor enters the market. Obviously companies like Amazon, and Walmart before it, bankrupted a lot of competitors. I don't know why it is so hard for others to see that SpaceX and Tesla are also going to bankrupt a lot of competitors.
mspohr
Well-Known Member
Ouch.
spacenews.com
Boeing’s Starliner charges approach $900 million - SpaceNews
Boeing announced Oct. 26 it will take yet another charge against earnings because of Starliner delays, bringing the total losses to nearly $900 million.
spacenews.com
The Starliner program is not only a fiscal disaster for Boeing but is also a huge technical embarrassment.
What ever convinced NASA that Boeing, a company that has never built a crewed spacecraft, could actually do it? At least SpaceX had already convincingly demonstrated that it could reliably send cargo to the ISS.
How the mighty have fallen.
What ever convinced NASA that Boeing, a company that has never built a crewed spacecraft, could actually do it? At least SpaceX had already convincingly demonstrated that it could reliably send cargo to the ISS.
How the mighty have fallen.
The fact that SpaceX appears to have done it exceedingly well on their first try as a company in their teens as compared to Boeing who has decades of history and experience with aviation engineering makes that all the more embarrassing...
It didn't help that Boeing tried for reusable elements with their capsule. They should have just gone with a big dumb non-reusable capsule with parachutes. Then they should have pulled a SpaceX and dropped the complexity the moment they saw it was going to slow down the process and progress. NASA was clear that these had to be the safest vehicles ever. Adding a bunch of complexity to go for a fancy land landing (true with SpaceX also) is just asking for problems to arise. SpaceX is very good at pivoting. Boeing? Not so much.
Had a friend who bled Boeing blue. Boeing was an engineering company, arguably the finest in aircraft. Then Douglass bought Boeing with Boeings money. Control passes to the suits and Boeing completely loses its soul. End of a great company.
JohnSnowNW
Active Member
While a absolutely agree with this, all of their failures have been for basic things. Would they have really done any better had they gone with an expendable capsule?
Just seems like real issues at Boeing are MUCH bigger than the Starliner program.
They are very much bigger. Note the 2.3 billion dollar loss they posted in Defense & Space. And the continuing problems in Commercial.
And more delays:
spacenews.com
First Starliner crewed flight further delayed
NASA has delayed the first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, a slip that will push back the spacecraft’s first operational mission into 2024.
spacenews.com
Man the hits just keep on coming for Boeing...And more delays:
First Starliner crewed flight further delayed
NASA has delayed the first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, a slip that will push back the spacecraft’s first operational mission into 2024.
No doubt.
I do think it’s good that NASA wants a redundant commercial launch provider. And one day when SpaceX is under different leadership, that could even be more important. But it isn’t like NASA had redundant launch providers during earlier missions.
First crewed Starliner mission on track for April
Preparations for the first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner vehicle to the ISS remain on schedule for a launch in mid to late April.
spacenews.com
NASA and Roscosmos planning to add mission to seat barter agreement
NASA is working with the Russian government to update an agreement to allow Russian cosmonauts to fly on the next two SpaceX ISS crew rotation missions.
spacenews.com
More delays:
spacenews.com
First crewed Starliner launch slips again
The first flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle with astronauts on board has been delayed from late April to the summer.
spacenews.com
So the first crewed Starliner mission will be over 3 years after Crew Dragon Demo-2.
And cost far more.
And cost far more.
Boeing's delays did allow SpaceX to get 8 (currently) additional crew launches from NASA. And with the last launch, Crew 6, it was the completion of the original contract that SpaceX was awarded back on September 16, 2014. The additional launches bring NASA's payment to SpaceX up to $4.93 billion. Boeing's initial contract for 6 launches was $4.2 billion. Not included in the contract but SpaceX is building anyway is a fifth Crew Dragon. SpaceX had originally only planned on building just four but the extra demand for other commercial and NASA missions showed the need for a fifth.
SpaceX was planning on deprecating their Dragon production before Boeing executed their first crewed mission.
Now we've got NET July.
spacenews.com
The article also has an update on Soyuz.
Starliner crewed test flight delayed to July
NASA and Boeing have pushed back the first crewed launch of the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft with astronauts on board until at least late July.
spacenews.com
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