SpaceX has emerged as the world’s leading space company, leveraging its lucrative contracts and relationship with NASA to design a rocket and spacecraft that helped it disrupt the space market, restore human spaceflight to the U.S. United after the retirement of the spacecraft and build a multi-billion-dollar business that now launches a rocket once every few days.
Boeing, meanwhile, is now finally set to launch its first human spaceflight mission at 10:52 a.m. Wednesday from Cape Canaveral, Fla., after two launch attempts were scrapped due to mechanical problems with the rocket. Boeing has faced mechanical and software problems with its Starliner spacecraft that have cost $1.4 billion and overrun a number and done untold damage to its reputation as the nation’s premier aerospace company.
Its first manned flight was canceled again on Saturday, this time due to a computer problem with the rocket, operated by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The flight would carry NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore to the International Space Station and last about eight days, on a mission to test how the spacecraft performs in space with humans on board.
After Boeing completes the flight, NASA will certify the Starliner to perform regular crew rotation missions to the space station, carrying a full contingent of four astronauts for six-month stays. NASA has been eager to fly Boeing in order to give the space agency another spacecraft in addition to SpaceX, which has flown crews to the station since 2020.
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While Boeing has struggled, its delays have been in stark contrast to SpaceX’s success, and they highlight the gap between how the two companies operate. Despite growing to more than 10,000 employees at multiple sites, SpaceX still operates as a lean, nimble start-up. He innovates quickly, testing the hardware until it breaks, sometimes causing explosions, then makes adjustments and tries again and again until he gets it right. Instead of contracting with other companies for many of the parts that go into its vehicles, SpaceX builds many of its rockets and spacecraft in-house.
As a massive defense contractor, Boeing operates in a more traditional way and flies when it thinks that all hardware and subsystems have been thoroughly field-tested. The commercial crew contract’s “fixed-price” structure, which means the companies are fed any cost overruns, has been a difficult adjustment for Boeing, which has typically had “cost-plus” contracts with the government that reimburse the company if he passed it. the budget.
The upcoming crewed flight, then, is a historic moment, one that Pam Melroy, NASA’s deputy administrator, has said is an “existential” moment for the company.
Boeing’s first crewed test flight was originally scheduled for May 6, but hours before the scheduled launch time, crews noticed that a valve that regulates pressure and directs the flow of propellants in the second stage of the Atlas V rocket was leaking. malfunctioned and aborted the launch. . Crews replaced the valve, but then discovered a helium leak in the shuttle’s propulsion system, which officials said is so small it doesn’t pose a problem for flight.
On Saturday, Starliner was in the final four minutes of its countdown to launch when an automated computer aborted the launch because one of the computer systems was slow to connect. If Wednesday’s attempt is foiled, NASA has said Boeing may try again on Thursday. After that, however, the Atlas V rocket would have to be pulled back from the launch pad to replace the batteries, which would delay the flight for at least another 10 days.
Ahead of the test mission, NASA and Boeing repeatedly said they would take the utmost care to ensure the flight was as safe as possible and that the lives of the astronauts on board were the top priority. Delays are normal in spaceflight, especially with humans aboard a spacecraft that has never flown with humans.
However, getting to this point has been a long and painful road. In December 2019, Boeing deemed the Starliner ready for its first unmanned test flight. It didn’t go well. The computer on board the autonomous capsule was out of order for 11 hours, so the spacecraft began executing commands for a completely different part of the flight.
Engineers also quickly discovered a second software problem, which could have caused the service module to crash into the crew capsule during separation before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. The issues were so serious that NASA officials said the spacecraft could have been lost if any of them, threatening the lives of the astronauts, had been on board. The flight never reached the space station, but returned successfully.
The next launch attempt, in 2021, never got off the ground because several valves in the capsule’s service module were corroded. It finally flew a successful uncrewed flight to the station in 2022, but then discovered flammable tape in the capsule that had to be removed, as well as problems with the parachute system.
NASA and Boeing said in April that they had solved all those problems and were ready. “I can say with confidence that the teams have absolutely done their due diligence,” said James Free, NASA administrator. The test flight has been postponed five times since then.
SpaceX also had a number of setbacks initially involving NASA. Two of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets exploded, one in 2015, the other in 2016. And during a test of the emergency shutdown system in 2019, the Dragon capsule that would carry the astronauts also exploded.
But since then, SpaceX has flown several missions for NASA, as well as taking private astronauts to the station and into orbit. She also received an extension of her contract with NASA to fly astronaut missions.
Her relationship with NASA had been building for a long time. SpaceX originally won a contract in 2006 as part of a program to begin developing cargo transport to the space station, an award that essentially saved it from bankruptcy. In 2008, it won a $1.6 billion contract to begin flying resupply missions to the station.
As NASA began to rely on its own rockets and spacecraft, SpaceX argued that the Pentagon should too, and eventually the company began winning contracts to fly some of the nation’s most sensitive national security satellites into space.
The government’s investment in SpaceX, as well as the company’s high flight rate, in-house manufacturing and efficient business practices — along with CEO Elon Musk’s relentless efforts to push his employees to work harder and faster – have allowed it to offer releases at premium prices below those of its competitors, which, in turn, has allowed it to capture more business and revenue.
As it has grown, SpaceX has moved to build a constellation of satellites, called Starlink, that allow users to access the Internet, even from remote locations. SpaceX now operates about 6,000 Starlink satellites and says it has 3 million customers.
In addition to flying its Falcon 9 rocket, which launched almost 100 times last year, an unprecedented rate, it is now working toward the development of the next-generation Starship rocket, the most powerful to ever fly.
As SpaceX’s capabilities have grown, so has NASA’s confidence and investment in the company.
In 2021, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to use Starship to land astronauts on the Moon. In each of the first three test flights, Starship has made methodical progress. The fourth could come as early as Thursday, the day Boeing hopes the Starliner will finally arrive at the space station.