Imagine you're stuck in space... and your two options for getting home are Boeing and SpaceX. Is OceanGate going to branch out into space travel next? I hope these brave souls make it home safely.
As much as I detest SpaceX and the literal child in charge of the company, their craft at least has a track record of safely bringing astronauts to and from the ISS. Boeing doesn't even have that.
SpaceX is Shotwell's company, and she's way more capable of driving success than the fuckstick who does their PR. It's difficult to dismiss the objectively astounding leaps in technical progress that the engineers at SpaceX have achieved.
Musk could take a long walk off a short bridge and it wouldn't affect SpaceX's operations at all.
I feel the same as you, but you really can't deny the fact that the engineers at his various companies have managed to design some really great tech despite their CEO.
Not just spacecraft either. Starlink is really the first usable satellite broadband, and Tesla has mastered the art of putting advanced powertrain in terrible automobiles.
Those companies have people whose unofficial job is to manage the child when he throws a tantrum and somewhat isolate him from things that could be damaged. Twitter didn't have this protection.
This. SpaceX and by proxy Starlink have Gwynne Shotwell to actually run things. Elon may be the one talking all the time, but he doesn't actually run daily operations.
I've read that Tesla and SpaceX engineers were actually happy that Musk bought Twitter because it's been keeping him occupied and out of their hair.
Well, Twitter's not made up of researchers and engineers. Catering to the whims of a rich guy to get your research funded is a tale as old as the scientific method, they've got it down by now.
some people don't realize that, despite politics and who owns it, they launch like 90% of the things in orbit worldwide. they are essentially the standard.
I hate Musk but he is not the one who designed the Falcon rockets and capsule which have the best track record. I would much prefer to go on one of those than Starliner.
I'm OOTL: is Soyuz no longer also an option?
Russia invading Ukraine has complicated any future dealings with them, especially when there’s a domestic alternative.
They've been transporting American space personal since at least March
Not sure what could have changed since, but when US/Russia relations at some of the worst levels in history, I'm surprised this last lingering relationship has held out as long as it has.
My understanding is that, in retaliation to US sanctions imposed at the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia stopped providing RD-180 rocket engines that were used in the Atlas V. My surprise is that the USA relied on Russian rocket engines to put national security payloads into space.
Prior to the war, relations between the US and Russia were relatively warm. Specifically, during the Bush War on Terror, Russia and China were active partners and enthusiastic participants in crushing "Radical Islamist Extremism".
I suspect you can trace the reliance on Russian rockets back to that period, what with the end of the Shuttle program and a confused path forward between administrations.
Russian industrial rocketry was both world class and dirt cheap, back during the late '00s.
SpaceX has a regular scheduled launch that's been sitting around delayed waiting for Starliner to leave the ISS, so kicking two people off it and replacing them with the Starliner crew is convenient and minimizes the schedule disruption.
Soyuz only has three seats and launching a Soyuz with only one crew or empty is something Russia hasn't done since the 60s and would be more work.
NASA is still doing a seat exchange and launching Johnny Kim on the next Soyuz in March, but it looks like it’ll be just Russians on at least the next 2 Soyuz’s after that
It's a decision between a spacecraft that sprung multiple leaks on its first crewed flight and one that carried crew 8 times without issues so far.
I always feel extreme tension during movies and TV if the scene is an oxygen leak from a space shuttle. Now I'm imagining that, but they have to repair things with their janky Xbox controller setup. Holding things upside-down, of course, because they wired the engines backwards.
Boeing takes it in the nuts.
Not enough billions in taxpayer dollars I guess.
Thank goodness they're too big to fail or they might actually be held accountable for building such shit equipment over the last decade+.
Of course they waited until Saturday to announce this while the markets are closed. Boeing will plummet on Monday.
Boeing will take a hit, but less than if the thing has fucked up during reentry and killed them ..
even a worse case scenario, boeing will survive. i believe their bomber contracts are the golden goose.
Big win for Spacex
Pretty sure those astronauts are actually whistleblowers
This was the only option. Glad that they made it.
The nice part is that they had two options. They couldn't prove the safety of Starliner completing the crew test flight, but it's good that there are 2 commercial crew vehicles that they could have chosen. That kind of choice is what the commercial crew program is all about.
Okay so they are stuck then. Right?
Wouldn't it be interesting if they make it back safely on the X snap dragons capsule thing and then they bring back the boing capsule and it burns up? It mean, if nothing happens it's okay, but If it does!?
I almost want to start shorting Boeing
I dunno man, part of me wants to buy the dip. They’re “too big to fail,” they’ll get enough corporate welfare to bounce back. The question is when.
Na this has been an unprecedented scale of fuckups. Dont make investment decisions like timing the market. Make investment decisions based off the quality, scalability and value of the company itself. Warren Buffet 101.
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