August 29, 2024 • 16 mins
In June, two NASA astronauts flew to the International Space Station on a Boeing spacecraft for a week-long test mission. But problems with the machinery mean they’ll be stuck there for 8 months… and when they come back in February, they won’t be flying Boeing. Instead, they’re hitching a ride with the company’s biggest rival in commercial space travel: Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Today on the show: space reporter Loren Grush and Boeing reporter Julie Johnsson on the challenges facing Boeing’s space program, the rise of SpaceX, and the future of NASA’s ambitions beyond our planet.
Further listening: Boeing Faces Washington and Wall Street Reckonings
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
When American astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams boarded a
Boeing Starliner spacecraft back in June, they were expecting to
spend about a week on the International Space Station and
then they'd fly home. But it's now the end of August,
and Butch and Sunny are still up there. The Starliner
(00:28):
spacecraft that delivered them to the ISS ran into some
problems on the way up, and as NASA looked into
what went wrong, it kept delaying the astronaut's return. Bloomberg
Space reporter Lauren Grush was watching the drama unfold.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
As time wore on, we started to get the sunset. Okay,
maybe NASA isn't so comfortable with bringing the Starliner crew
home on Starliner.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
On Saturday, NASA administrator and former US Senator Bill Nelson
announced that the ast wouldn't be making it home this
summer or this fall.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
NASA has decided that Butch and Sunny will return with
Crew nine next February.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Next February, and not on a Boeing Starliner. The astronauts
are scheduled to fly back with Boeing's chief rival in
commercial space travel. Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Faes fared for a decade or more so, to have
Elon Musk, of all people, rescuing their crew is just
really terrible optics.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Julie Johnson is Bloomberg's Boeing beat reporter. Boeing can't seem
to stay out of the news this year. First a
commercial plane part fell off, a seven thirty seven Max,
and now these astronauts are set to get a ride
home from the company's fiercest competitor, at least as far
as its space portfolio is concerned. This all might look
(01:55):
like a win for SpaceX and a loss for Boeing,
and it's the latest chapter in a battle for dominance
in space travel. But there's a lot more at stake
here than just a corporate rivalry. Today on the show,
two astronauts, two companies, and one return mission. What the
(02:16):
NASA astronaut saga means for Boeing, What it tells us
about SpaceX's growing presence in the space travel industry, and
how it could affect the US government's future ambitions beyond
our planet. This is the Big Take DC Podcast. I'm
Sarah Holder. It's been a particularly chaotic few weeks for
(02:41):
space reporters like Lauren Grush months.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Really, I mean years. How far back do we want
to go with this mission?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
We'll start back in twenty fourteen when NASA chose companies
for its commercial crew program.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
The Commercial Crew program was a bit of a radical
chain for NASA, where they would act more like a customer.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
The idea was NASA would pay private companies to develop
spacecraft to fly their astronauts to the ISS. For NASA,
it meant spending less of its own resources developing and
testing this tech, or relying less on Russian spacecraft, which
was complicated for geopolitical reasons, and it was a good
deal for the companies too.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
NASA said it would give a lump sum of money,
kind of like seed investment, and once the capsules were complete,
NASA would buy rides for its astronauts on those vehicles,
but the companies would ultimately own the vehicles themselves so
that they could then use them to turn a profit
later by selling commercial tickets on their flights.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
At the time, there was one clear front runner in
the commercial spacecraft industry, Boeing.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Actually following is a space pioneer.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
That's Boeing reporter Julie Johnson.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
They were instrumental in the Apollo program in the sixties.
They rescued the Saturn rocket at the time, the world's
biggest rocket that was used to take astronauts to the Moon,
and they're the crime contractor for the International Space Station,
so they had definitely the advantages of an incumbent.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
When it came time for NASA to award its commercial
crew contracts. Lauren says, there were some major players pushing
for Boeing to get all of the money.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I spoke with Lori Garver, who was a Deputy Administrator
at the time, and she really spearheaded this program, and
a lot of members of Congress, and then Boeing themselves
and NASA management really lobbied hard for Boeing to be
the only ones to receive the contract.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
According to Luri, but Lourie and others that NASA decided
there should really be two providers in the mix. They
didn't want to rely on Boeing alone.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
And there are a number of reasons to do that. One,
you know, it kind of inspired a friendly competition to
see who would be first to launch people on these vehicles,
and then also kind of illustrates. You know why we
need to providers with this whole saga is that, you know,
if there was a problem with one vehicle, they would
have another American made, non Russian vehicle that could get
(05:18):
its astronauts into orbit.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
NASA awarded two contracts, four point two billion dollars to
Boeing and two point six billion dollars to what was
then a plucky upstart Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
They were very much the underdog in this race.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
And how has that friendly competition gone. How have Boeing
and SpaceX each performed since that twenty fourteen contract award.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Right, So, for years and years they did appear outwardly
to be kind of neck and neck in terms of
their development. When they first handed out launched contracts in
twenty fourteen, they expected these vehicles to launch as early
as twenty seventeen, but nobody made that deadline.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
But soon SpaceX started to pull ahead with a series
of successful launches.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
And then they just pushed it beyond anything anybody's ever done.
If you work the partners landed, maybe their performance has
just been extraordinary and outstanding.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Julie says. SpaceX did have a few key advantages.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
SpaceX was delivering cargo to the space station and so
they were able to modify this craft that they already had,
whereas Boeing was starting from scratch.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
They were also a buzzy startup.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Suddenly they were the cool company everyone wanted to go
work for.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
They were the visionaries, and they used a startup business model,
the move fast and break things mentality of Silicon Valley.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
One of the ways that SpaceX likes to test is
by launching things very early on in their development and
knowing that they might not necessarily succeed, but pushing them
to their limits until they and then learning from those
quote unquote failures and incorporating those lessons learned into the
(07:07):
next flight. So we've seen quite a number of explosions there,
but with each subsequent test launch they push the envelope
farther have fewer explosions, so they've definitely learning and iterating.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And in twenty twenty, SpaceX had a major breakthrough.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Three two fun zero ignition liftops. As a fact nine
a crew d.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It successfully sent its first spacecraft crewed with NASA astronauts
to the ISS Data Goospat deck got beat bottom dog.
Since that first successful crude launch in twenty twenty. SpaceX
has sent nine separate crews of NASA astronauts up to
the ISS. And as for Boeing, where I want to begin.
(07:55):
When Boeing first launched it's Starliner spacecraft in an uncrude
test back in twenty nineteen, the.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Vehicle suffered a number of software glitches which ultimately prevented
the vehicle from reaching the International Space Station as planned.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
From there, NASA did a big review of the program
and agreed that Boeing would do a do over mission
another uncrude test flight.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
But then just before they were about to launch, they
discovered a number of corroded valves on the vehicle and
ultimately had to roll it back to the hangar, and
that delayed them up to another year before they were
able to launch that mission again.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
The Starliner capsule launched successfully in May of twenty twenty two,
and finally two years later, in May of this year,
Boeing was ready to launch a crude flight with two
astronauts up to the ISS, but when it came time
to launch, it had some issue with a valve. Boeing
replaced it, but then found a helium leak After a
(08:56):
few weeks they decided it was safe to move ahead
even with that leak.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
So we were really eager to see this launch take
place because of all of the problems that they've had,
and it seemed as if they might have finally overcome
all of these issues.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Lauren was there in Cape Canaveral for that launch.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
So we had gotten down to, I want to say,
a couple minutes to the lift off, and then they
delayed it. And I remember on that attempt I sunk
to my knees because I was so frustrated.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
It had to do with a computer that didn't perform
properly and triggered an abort, another false start, but finally
on June.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Fifth, Johnnie and I are honored to share this dream
of spaceflights with each and every one of you.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Six five Boeing Starliner launched with two astronauts on board.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Ignition and lift off of Starliner and Atlas five carrying
two American heroes.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Drawing shortly after launch. Things started to go wrong after
the break, how the Starliner test flight got messy, and
how SpaceX stepped in astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams
(10:20):
reached the International Space Station safely on June sixth, but
on the way up, their Boeing Starliner had more helium
leaks and some thrusters on the spacecraft failed and had
to be rebooted. So NASA and Boeing turned to the
task of figuring out what went wrong, and after weeks
of analysis, they decided the Starliner shouldn't take Butch and
(10:41):
Sunny back to Earth. Instead, they'd hitch a ride on
SpaceX's crew Dragon capsule, which is making the next plan
mission to and from the ISS.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
When it came down to it, NASA doesn't have the
tolerance for risk rightfully so that it once did.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson spoke at a news conference last weekend.
He evoked the deadly Challenger explosion in nineteen eighty six
and the disintegration of the Columbia Shuttle during re entry
in two thousand and three.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
We have had mistakes done in the past. We lost
two space shuttles as a result of there not being
a culture in which information could come forward.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
The agency has a much different approach to safety these days.
And it's not like they were out of auctions. They
knew SpaceX was sending a capsule up that could bring
Butch and Sunny back next year.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
What does it mean for Boeing financially that these astronauts
are now stuck for an extra six months and this
launch failed.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Essentially, the economics for this program are not looking good.
Oh and by the way, Bowing's and Chaos, They've not
made an annual profit this decade. They've got a new
CEO with a mandate to come in and look at
everything with a fresh eye.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
So did some of the problems that are plaguing Boeing's
airplane division also have an impact on the spacecraft program.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
One hundred percent. Yeah, you know why things break apart
or organizations failed. These are really complex dynamic that play out,
you know, over hundreds or thousands of decisions, little decisions
that chip away at expertise.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Julie says, much like the problems with Boeing seven thirty
seven Max civilian jets, some of the star Liner problems
likely come down to oversight, failing to properly regulate the
work of outside contractors, and a culture that employees say
has discouraged them from speaking up about issues. All that
has come at a high price for the company.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Because of the delays on star Liner. Boeing had already
lost about one point six billion dollars on this program,
and the contract is only for six astronaut flights once
NASA clears Starliner to carry you know, regular humans. So
that's not there's no way you recover that amount of
(13:13):
money over six trips.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
What do we know about how Boeing is weighing the
costs and benefits of remaining involved in the commercial crew
program itself.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
You've got a new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, who has a
free pass from Wall Street, from investors and stakeholders to
go in and to make the tough decisions, and in context,
what they care about is getting the commercial airplane division
back on track. This is a distraction, not to minimize it.
It's you know, I mean, it's US space flight. There're
(13:46):
do you political ramifications for this, But if you're a
Boeing investor, it's a really small program, and I think
there'd be some understanding that, yeah, Boeing can't do everything,
and let's just focus on the key businesses and get
them right.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Over the weekend, Boeing shared a statement with Bloomberg saying
Boeing continues to focus first and foremost on the safety
of the crew and spacecraft. We are executing the mission
as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft
for a safe and successful, uncrude return. In the meantime,
for SpaceX, being tapped to bring the astronauts home bolsters
(14:23):
their image as a reliable partner to the US government,
a company that's matured beyond the days of viral rocket explosions.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
I think there's probably a lot of pride in being
able to answer this call for NASA. The point of
picking two providers is really for this exact scenario, you
just don't want to put all your eggs in one basket.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And in the coming years, having commercial partners in space
is only going to be more important for NASA, and
that could mean more opportunities for SpaceX to make its mark.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
You know, It's Falcon nine rocket has become the most
prolific rocket on the face of the Earth right now.
So SpaceX has really worked to become more and more
routine and reliable as a launch provider.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
But SpaceX still has its bad days. Just this week,
the company's primary Falcon nine rocket was grounded by federal
regulators after a failed landing This quite literally is rocket science,
and it's not always easy to get it right. In
the meantime, those two astronauts will be orbiting Earth for
(15:28):
a lot longer than they planned, but they seem to
be doing all right. We've heard from the astronauts themselves
in one press conference since they landed on the ISS.
Here's Sunny Williams.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
We are having a great time here on ISS, you know.
Butch and I have been up here before, and it
feels like coming back home. It feels good to float around,
It feels good to be in space and work up
here with the International Space Station team. So yeah, it's
great to be up here.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Thanks for listening to The Big Take DC podcast from
Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah. This episode was produced by Julia Press.
It was mixed by Blake Maples. It was edited by
Aaron Edwards and Eric Johnson. It was fact checked by
Adrianna Tapia. Wendy Benjaminson and Elizabeth Ponso provide editorial direction
for the show. Our senior producers are Kim Gittelson and
(16:18):
Naomi Shaven, who also edited this episode. Nicole Bumsterbor is
our executive producer. Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's head of podcasts.
Please follow and review The Big Take DC wherever you
listen to podcasts. It helps new listeners find the show.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
When American astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams boarded a
Boeing Starliner spacecraft back in June, they were expecting to
spend about a week on the International Space Station and
then they'd fly home. But it's now the end of August,
and Butch and Sunny are still up there. The Starliner
(00:28):
spacecraft that delivered them to the ISS ran into some
problems on the way up, and as NASA looked into
what went wrong, it kept delaying the astronaut's return. Bloomberg
Space reporter Lauren Grush was watching the drama unfold.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
As time wore on, we started to get the sunset. Okay,
maybe NASA isn't so comfortable with bringing the Starliner crew
home on Starliner.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
On Saturday, NASA administrator and former US Senator Bill Nelson
announced that the ast wouldn't be making it home this
summer or this fall.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
NASA has decided that Butch and Sunny will return with
Crew nine next February.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Next February, and not on a Boeing Starliner. The astronauts
are scheduled to fly back with Boeing's chief rival in
commercial space travel. Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Faes fared for a decade or more so, to have
Elon Musk, of all people, rescuing their crew is just
really terrible optics.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Julie Johnson is Bloomberg's Boeing beat reporter. Boeing can't seem
to stay out of the news this year. First a
commercial plane part fell off, a seven thirty seven Max,
and now these astronauts are set to get a ride
home from the company's fiercest competitor, at least as far
as its space portfolio is concerned. This all might look
(01:55):
like a win for SpaceX and a loss for Boeing,
and it's the latest chapter in a battle for dominance
in space travel. But there's a lot more at stake
here than just a corporate rivalry. Today on the show,
two astronauts, two companies, and one return mission. What the
(02:16):
NASA astronaut saga means for Boeing, What it tells us
about SpaceX's growing presence in the space travel industry, and
how it could affect the US government's future ambitions beyond
our planet. This is the Big Take DC Podcast. I'm
Sarah Holder. It's been a particularly chaotic few weeks for
(02:41):
space reporters like Lauren Grush months.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Really, I mean years. How far back do we want
to go with this mission?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
We'll start back in twenty fourteen when NASA chose companies
for its commercial crew program.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
The Commercial Crew program was a bit of a radical
chain for NASA, where they would act more like a customer.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
The idea was NASA would pay private companies to develop
spacecraft to fly their astronauts to the ISS. For NASA,
it meant spending less of its own resources developing and
testing this tech, or relying less on Russian spacecraft, which
was complicated for geopolitical reasons, and it was a good
deal for the companies too.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
NASA said it would give a lump sum of money,
kind of like seed investment, and once the capsules were complete,
NASA would buy rides for its astronauts on those vehicles,
but the companies would ultimately own the vehicles themselves so
that they could then use them to turn a profit
later by selling commercial tickets on their flights.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
At the time, there was one clear front runner in
the commercial spacecraft industry, Boeing.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Actually following is a space pioneer.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
That's Boeing reporter Julie Johnson.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
They were instrumental in the Apollo program in the sixties.
They rescued the Saturn rocket at the time, the world's
biggest rocket that was used to take astronauts to the Moon,
and they're the crime contractor for the International Space Station,
so they had definitely the advantages of an incumbent.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
When it came time for NASA to award its commercial
crew contracts. Lauren says, there were some major players pushing
for Boeing to get all of the money.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
I spoke with Lori Garver, who was a Deputy Administrator
at the time, and she really spearheaded this program, and
a lot of members of Congress, and then Boeing themselves
and NASA management really lobbied hard for Boeing to be
the only ones to receive the contract.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
According to Luri, but Lourie and others that NASA decided
there should really be two providers in the mix. They
didn't want to rely on Boeing alone.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
And there are a number of reasons to do that. One,
you know, it kind of inspired a friendly competition to
see who would be first to launch people on these vehicles,
and then also kind of illustrates. You know why we
need to providers with this whole saga is that, you know,
if there was a problem with one vehicle, they would
have another American made, non Russian vehicle that could get
(05:18):
its astronauts into orbit.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
NASA awarded two contracts, four point two billion dollars to
Boeing and two point six billion dollars to what was
then a plucky upstart Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
They were very much the underdog in this race.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
And how has that friendly competition gone. How have Boeing
and SpaceX each performed since that twenty fourteen contract award.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
Right, So, for years and years they did appear outwardly
to be kind of neck and neck in terms of
their development. When they first handed out launched contracts in
twenty fourteen, they expected these vehicles to launch as early
as twenty seventeen, but nobody made that deadline.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
But soon SpaceX started to pull ahead with a series
of successful launches.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
And then they just pushed it beyond anything anybody's ever done.
If you work the partners landed, maybe their performance has
just been extraordinary and outstanding.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Julie says. SpaceX did have a few key advantages.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
SpaceX was delivering cargo to the space station and so
they were able to modify this craft that they already had,
whereas Boeing was starting from scratch.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
They were also a buzzy startup.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Suddenly they were the cool company everyone wanted to go
work for.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
They were the visionaries, and they used a startup business model,
the move fast and break things mentality of Silicon Valley.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
One of the ways that SpaceX likes to test is
by launching things very early on in their development and
knowing that they might not necessarily succeed, but pushing them
to their limits until they and then learning from those
quote unquote failures and incorporating those lessons learned into the
(07:07):
next flight. So we've seen quite a number of explosions there,
but with each subsequent test launch they push the envelope
farther have fewer explosions, so they've definitely learning and iterating.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
And in twenty twenty, SpaceX had a major breakthrough.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Three two fun zero ignition liftops. As a fact nine
a crew d.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It successfully sent its first spacecraft crewed with NASA astronauts
to the ISS Data Goospat deck got beat bottom dog.
Since that first successful crude launch in twenty twenty. SpaceX
has sent nine separate crews of NASA astronauts up to
the ISS. And as for Boeing, where I want to begin.
(07:55):
When Boeing first launched it's Starliner spacecraft in an uncrude
test back in twenty nineteen, the.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Vehicle suffered a number of software glitches which ultimately prevented
the vehicle from reaching the International Space Station as planned.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
From there, NASA did a big review of the program
and agreed that Boeing would do a do over mission
another uncrude test flight.
Speaker 3 (08:19):
But then just before they were about to launch, they
discovered a number of corroded valves on the vehicle and
ultimately had to roll it back to the hangar, and
that delayed them up to another year before they were
able to launch that mission again.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
The Starliner capsule launched successfully in May of twenty twenty two,
and finally two years later, in May of this year,
Boeing was ready to launch a crude flight with two
astronauts up to the ISS, but when it came time
to launch, it had some issue with a valve. Boeing
replaced it, but then found a helium leak After a
(08:56):
few weeks they decided it was safe to move ahead
even with that leak.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
So we were really eager to see this launch take
place because of all of the problems that they've had,
and it seemed as if they might have finally overcome
all of these issues.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Lauren was there in Cape Canaveral for that launch.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
So we had gotten down to, I want to say,
a couple minutes to the lift off, and then they
delayed it. And I remember on that attempt I sunk
to my knees because I was so frustrated.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
It had to do with a computer that didn't perform
properly and triggered an abort, another false start, but finally
on June.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Fifth, Johnnie and I are honored to share this dream
of spaceflights with each and every one of you.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Six five Boeing Starliner launched with two astronauts on board.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Ignition and lift off of Starliner and Atlas five carrying
two American heroes.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Drawing shortly after launch. Things started to go wrong after
the break, how the Starliner test flight got messy, and
how SpaceX stepped in astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams
(10:20):
reached the International Space Station safely on June sixth, but
on the way up, their Boeing Starliner had more helium
leaks and some thrusters on the spacecraft failed and had
to be rebooted. So NASA and Boeing turned to the
task of figuring out what went wrong, and after weeks
of analysis, they decided the Starliner shouldn't take Butch and
(10:41):
Sunny back to Earth. Instead, they'd hitch a ride on
SpaceX's crew Dragon capsule, which is making the next plan
mission to and from the ISS.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
When it came down to it, NASA doesn't have the
tolerance for risk rightfully so that it once did.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson spoke at a news conference last weekend.
He evoked the deadly Challenger explosion in nineteen eighty six
and the disintegration of the Columbia Shuttle during re entry
in two thousand and three.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
We have had mistakes done in the past. We lost
two space shuttles as a result of there not being
a culture in which information could come forward.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
The agency has a much different approach to safety these days.
And it's not like they were out of auctions. They
knew SpaceX was sending a capsule up that could bring
Butch and Sunny back next year.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
What does it mean for Boeing financially that these astronauts
are now stuck for an extra six months and this
launch failed.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Essentially, the economics for this program are not looking good.
Oh and by the way, Bowing's and Chaos, They've not
made an annual profit this decade. They've got a new
CEO with a mandate to come in and look at
everything with a fresh eye.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
So did some of the problems that are plaguing Boeing's
airplane division also have an impact on the spacecraft program.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
One hundred percent. Yeah, you know why things break apart
or organizations failed. These are really complex dynamic that play out,
you know, over hundreds or thousands of decisions, little decisions
that chip away at expertise.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Julie says, much like the problems with Boeing seven thirty
seven Max civilian jets, some of the star Liner problems
likely come down to oversight, failing to properly regulate the
work of outside contractors, and a culture that employees say
has discouraged them from speaking up about issues. All that
has come at a high price for the company.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Because of the delays on star Liner. Boeing had already
lost about one point six billion dollars on this program,
and the contract is only for six astronaut flights once
NASA clears Starliner to carry you know, regular humans. So
that's not there's no way you recover that amount of
(13:13):
money over six trips.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
What do we know about how Boeing is weighing the
costs and benefits of remaining involved in the commercial crew
program itself.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
You've got a new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, who has a
free pass from Wall Street, from investors and stakeholders to
go in and to make the tough decisions, and in context,
what they care about is getting the commercial airplane division
back on track. This is a distraction, not to minimize it.
It's you know, I mean, it's US space flight. There're
(13:46):
do you political ramifications for this, But if you're a
Boeing investor, it's a really small program, and I think
there'd be some understanding that, yeah, Boeing can't do everything,
and let's just focus on the key businesses and get
them right.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Over the weekend, Boeing shared a statement with Bloomberg saying
Boeing continues to focus first and foremost on the safety
of the crew and spacecraft. We are executing the mission
as determined by NASA, and we are preparing the spacecraft
for a safe and successful, uncrude return. In the meantime,
for SpaceX, being tapped to bring the astronauts home bolsters
(14:23):
their image as a reliable partner to the US government,
a company that's matured beyond the days of viral rocket explosions.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
I think there's probably a lot of pride in being
able to answer this call for NASA. The point of
picking two providers is really for this exact scenario, you
just don't want to put all your eggs in one basket.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And in the coming years, having commercial partners in space
is only going to be more important for NASA, and
that could mean more opportunities for SpaceX to make its mark.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
You know, It's Falcon nine rocket has become the most
prolific rocket on the face of the Earth right now.
So SpaceX has really worked to become more and more
routine and reliable as a launch provider.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
But SpaceX still has its bad days. Just this week,
the company's primary Falcon nine rocket was grounded by federal
regulators after a failed landing This quite literally is rocket science,
and it's not always easy to get it right. In
the meantime, those two astronauts will be orbiting Earth for
(15:28):
a lot longer than they planned, but they seem to
be doing all right. We've heard from the astronauts themselves
in one press conference since they landed on the ISS.
Here's Sunny Williams.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
We are having a great time here on ISS, you know.
Butch and I have been up here before, and it
feels like coming back home. It feels good to float around,
It feels good to be in space and work up
here with the International Space Station team. So yeah, it's
great to be up here.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Thanks for listening to The Big Take DC podcast from
Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah. This episode was produced by Julia Press.
It was mixed by Blake Maples. It was edited by
Aaron Edwards and Eric Johnson. It was fact checked by
Adrianna Tapia. Wendy Benjaminson and Elizabeth Ponso provide editorial direction
for the show. Our senior producers are Kim Gittelson and
(16:18):
Naomi Shaven, who also edited this episode. Nicole Bumsterbor is
our executive producer. Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's head of podcasts.
Please follow and review The Big Take DC wherever you
listen to podcasts. It helps new listeners find the show.
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