WASHINGTON, August 25 – SpaceX comes to Boeing’s aid.
The fact that the traditional company is dependent on the help of an up-and-coming competitor is not good news for the aerospace giant.
Due to problems with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, two astronauts who flew to the International Space Station in June will now finally return to Earth in a spacecraft built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
For Boeing, a long-time partner of the US space agency, NASA’s announcement of this plan on Saturday is a blow, even a humiliation.
This could not come at a worse time for Boeing. The reputation that the company’s aircraft have long enjoyed has been seriously damaged in recent years by a series of malfunctions and two fatal crashes.
“It’s not a good time for Boeing,” Erik Seedhouse, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told AFP.
For Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the astronauts who flew to the ISS on the Starliner, it would be “very embarrassing” to have to return on a SpaceX spacecraft, he added.
“It’s an image problem,” agreed Cai von Rumohr, an aviation analyst at TD Cowen, adding that it “could jeopardize future contracts with NASA.”
But Boeing’s status and enormous size give the company significant potential for recovery.
“I don’t think Boeing is going anywhere,” said Glenn Lightsey, a professor at Georgia Tech University’s Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.
Boeing incurred cost overruns of around US$1.6 billion (RMB7 billion) in developing the Starliner due to repeated development delays and price increases caused by supply chain problems.
To put that in context, however, Boeing’s defense, space and security division generated revenue of $24.93 billion in 2023 – while the overall company generated revenue of $77.79 billion.
“Yes, they can recover because they are overwhelmingly powerful,” said Seedhouse.
Regaining trust
Despite repeated delays in the Starliner program, NASA has never indicated a weakening of its collaboration with Boeing since it first placed orders for space taxis with both Boeing and SpaceX in 2014.
The US space agency has repeatedly stressed that its goal is to have two vehicles to transport astronauts to the ISS and back, as a kind of insurance plan in case one of the vehicles runs into problems.
To regain confidence, Boeing must, according to Seedhouse, “resolve all of these issues and conduct a successful repeat flight with a different crew on board, probably sometime next year.”
The company stressed that the two problems Starliner had – helium leaks and a defective propulsion system – were fixable.
Such problems are not a “big surprise,” Lightsey said, adding that “Starliner is still in the early stages of development.”
The spacecraft underwent three orbital tests, two of them unmanned.
“It’s only after you’ve completed maybe five missions that you know how everything will behave in space,” he added.
“Even if a few more flights are needed, I don’t expect NASA to give up on it.”
A tough comparison
The comparison between Boeing and SpaceX’s competing programs is nevertheless embarrassing for the older and much larger company.
Musk’s company was widely considered an outsider in 2014, receiving $2.6 billion for the project, compared to $4.2 billion for Boeing.
Nevertheless, for the past four years it has been the only means of transportation for astronauts to travel to the ISS and back.
SpaceX had an advantage from the start: its Dragon spacecraft has been supplying the ISS with supplies since 2012.
Boeing, in turn, has had close ties to NASA for decades and has worked on the US space program for decades.
“They were involved in the Apollo program and built some of the space station modules,” Seedhouse said.
“So it’s a surprise that in such a short period of time they went from being a company that was doing very well to being a company that was making mistakes everywhere.”
He said there was no single reason for the numerous setbacks, but that “problems with standards and quality control” at Boeing “affect both the spacecraft and the aircraft itself.”
Because of its size, Seedhouse said, Boeing is inherently more bureaucratic than SpaceX, where decisions can be made more quickly.
But the dynamics 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 assume that the circle will close at some point.” — AFP
