Posted on 07/31/2024 4:39:58 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday that its rival Boeing Co. is awarded government contracts in the space segment owing to their "armies of lobbyists" despite safety concerns around its commercial plane segment...
"They have armies of lobbyists," Musk wrote in response to an X user who wondered why Boeing is awarded big contracts from the government despite the issues flagged with its passenger flight segment.
"Not sure why Boeing (given their track record with passenger flights) is given such contracts when SpaceX (given their track record with launches) is just vastly superior," Dhaval Shroff wrote. Shroff is also an employee at Musk's Tesla.
The comments on Boeing's alleged incompetence relative to SpaceX come amid safety issues plaguing its commercial airplane segment and technical issues identified with its Starliner spacecraft.
Boeing launched its Starliner spacecraft in early June with two astronauts – Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore. Though they were initially estimated to return on June 14, the return dates have been delayed time and again owing to issues of helium system leaks and thruster performance identified with the Starliner spacecraft while docking with the International Space Station (ISS.)
NASA is currently trying to study the risks associated with these issues before returning the astronauts...
SpaceX sent its first crewed mission to the ISS in 2020 on its Dragon spacecraft and has since then undertaken multiple missions, overtaking its traditional rival.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
As Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread alone.”
A vigorous corporate culture depends upon unquantifiable intangibles, such as a vision and passion for excellence.
How dare Musk expose the dirty politics of Boeing/the government!
For years i heard about this “Starliner”.
Never looked at a picture of it.
Just a few months ago I actually looked.
Holy Crap!!!!
They pulled the prints from the old apollo command module and updated them, and they still can’t get it right!!!
One factor not being discussed in the “mainstream” media is that Starliner’s internal batteries will be dead in a few weeks (sometime in early September), and once that happens it will become a useless brick. I’ve been firmly convinced all along that the two astronauts will have to be brought back some other way, and that Starliner will be released to burn up in the atmosphere. I just hope that NASA finally swallows its pride and tasks SpaceX with rescuing them so that both NASA and Boeing have to suffer the humiliation they so richly deserve. I think not wanting to admit failure is the primary reason why they keep futilely digging in this pile of horse dung hoping to find a pony somewhere within it.
I think it's built to do a last second propulsive landing on dry land, which would be foolhardy to try now with passengers. There's no way SpaceX won't be giving them the ride home.
If Boeing kills them on the way home, it will be exponentially more devastating!
NASA loves to throw money away
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In that vein, the Griffin lunar mission was tasked with many things, but its primary reason was tpo deliverr the Vulcan lander to the Lunar south pole to look for ice and other minerals.
But because the over all price tag rose from 250 million to near 500 million, the Vulcan was canceled. But NASA still plans to use the Vulcan instruments on other lunar projects.
And not to let the Griffin mission go to waste, they plan to use it as a technology demonstrator with a dummy payload - usually a cement block.
So NASA has spent near 500 million to land a brick on the moon.
Meanwhile the Chinese have two successful; landings on the dark side - something that NASA has not attempted and probably can’t do.
“One factor not being discussed in the “mainstream” media is that Starliner’s internal batteries will be dead in a few weeks (sometime in early September), and once that happens it will become a useless brick.”
Yup—this is classic “kicking the can down the road” decision-making.
It sounds like nobody in Boeing has the authority and guts to make a decision and they are just stalling.
Crew 9. August 18th. Maybe the two stranded astronauts could return with this capsule?
https://www.spacelaunchschedule.com/launch/falcon-9-block-5-crew-9/
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