It is absolutely wild that they were supposed to already be home and instead are stuck there until February. It absolutely makes sense that you want more than one option, especially when an insane...
It is absolutely wild that they were supposed to already be home and instead are stuck there until February.
It absolutely makes sense that you want more than one option, especially when an insane billionaire runs your current option. Somehow Boeing has fucked up so bad that they make Elon look competent. This is a pretty stark example of how the profit motive can and will absolutely wreck a business. It's also a good reminder that not everything needs to be motivated by profit.
On top of profit motive, I'd argue part of Boeing's (as well as much of the rest of old school aerospace's) problems are due to a high degree of political entanglement. Boeing and the rest have...
On top of profit motive, I'd argue part of Boeing's (as well as much of the rest of old school aerospace's) problems are due to a high degree of political entanglement. Boeing and the rest have long had congresspeople fighting for their interests and steering NASA toward them and have been currying favor from those congresspeople with inefficiencies that spread development and manufacturing across as large of a number of states as possible. They came to be more built around ensuring a steady flow of cash from the government than anything else. The end product is secondary or tertiary in priority, at best.
A lot of that is another symptom of consolidation. It's come up a lot that Boeing has been on a downward trajectory due to them merging with McDonnell-Douglas (itself a merger of Douglas and...
A lot of that is another symptom of consolidation. It's come up a lot that Boeing has been on a downward trajectory due to them merging with McDonnell-Douglas (itself a merger of Douglas and McDonnell in the 60s...) and how the company culture suffered from McDonnell management. However, more importantly, each one of those mergers was the elimination of competition.
If all of the many defunct aerospace companies hadn't been merged into a tiny few, they'd have to actually excel to win contracts.
Given an arbitrarily complex system, there are almost always perverse incentives that can be gamed. For large and old interests such as Boeing, I also always suspect a Byzantine bureaucracy full...
Given an arbitrarily complex system, there are almost always perverse incentives that can be gamed.
For large and old interests such as Boeing, I also always suspect a Byzantine bureaucracy full of senior and mid-level executives who spend much of their time trying to justify their paychecks and, so, their fiefdoms. Inevitably, this leads to massive inefficiencies, duplicative and redundant projects and organizations, and conflict.
The net outcome is usually:
shipping product less frequently
shipping product at lower quality
confusing partner relationships
lack of obvious (or actual) accountability when leaders screw up
Sounds like just another part of the American military industrial complex to me, but you're definitely right. Easy to blame mismanagement at the top while missing that reality.
Sounds like just another part of the American military industrial complex to me, but you're definitely right. Easy to blame mismanagement at the top while missing that reality.
Boeing's space division had never won a large fixed-price contract. Its leaders were used to operating in a cost-plus environment, in which Boeing could bill the government for all of its expenses and earn a fee. Cost overruns and delays were not the company's problem—they were NASA's. Now Boeing had to deliver a flyable spacecraft for a firm, fixed price.
Boeing struggled to adjust to this environment. Regarding complicated space projects, Boeing was used to spending other people's money. Now, every penny spent on Starliner meant one less penny in profit (or, ultimately, greater losses). This meant that Boeing allocated fewer resources to Starliner than it needed to thrive.
Don't make the mistake of attributing SpaceX's competence to Elon Musk. Gwynne Shotwell is pretty well known for both being the real leader of that company, and doing her best from keeping Musk...
Don't make the mistake of attributing SpaceX's competence to Elon Musk. Gwynne Shotwell is pretty well known for both being the real leader of that company, and doing her best from keeping Musk from dipping his fingers in their day to day operations, no matter how much he loves to give off the perception that he's personally designed every piece of hardware they've launched.
SpaceX is a very effective, competant company despite Elon, not because of him. They'd be just as effective no matter who they were owned by as long as the owner allowed Shotwell the control she currently has.
No I know. It's just easy and appealing to make Musk jokes. His companies are generally better for him not being around. Twitter taking up all his stupid time is certainly great for SpaceX and Tesla.
No I know. It's just easy and appealing to make Musk jokes. His companies are generally better for him not being around. Twitter taking up all his stupid time is certainly great for SpaceX and Tesla.
What SpaceX achieved is remarkable. They went from nearly failing to beeing seem as a wildcard provider, and have now emerged as a reliable partner NASA can rely on. Hopefully this debacle doesn't...
What SpaceX achieved is remarkable. They went from nearly failing to beeing seem as a wildcard provider, and have now emerged as a reliable partner NASA can rely on.
Hopefully this debacle doesn't prove to be the end of Boeing's space division, and instead marks the beginning of major internal reforms.
This is like a 80s science fiction novel actually came to life. Evil X corporation strands astronauts in space because of greed and immunity from prosecution thanks to politicians in their pocket....
This is like a 80s science fiction novel actually came to life. Evil X corporation strands astronauts in space because of greed and immunity from prosecution thanks to politicians in their pocket. Even more evil billionaire comes to the rescue to consolidate his grip on humanity like some Bond villain. But in the meantime our heroes are stuck up in space, doing science sure, but all free agency removed from them.
It is absolutely wild that they were supposed to already be home and instead are stuck there until February.
It absolutely makes sense that you want more than one option, especially when an insane billionaire runs your current option. Somehow Boeing has fucked up so bad that they make Elon look competent. This is a pretty stark example of how the profit motive can and will absolutely wreck a business. It's also a good reminder that not everything needs to be motivated by profit.
On top of profit motive, I'd argue part of Boeing's (as well as much of the rest of old school aerospace's) problems are due to a high degree of political entanglement. Boeing and the rest have long had congresspeople fighting for their interests and steering NASA toward them and have been currying favor from those congresspeople with inefficiencies that spread development and manufacturing across as large of a number of states as possible. They came to be more built around ensuring a steady flow of cash from the government than anything else. The end product is secondary or tertiary in priority, at best.
A lot of that is another symptom of consolidation. It's come up a lot that Boeing has been on a downward trajectory due to them merging with McDonnell-Douglas (itself a merger of Douglas and McDonnell in the 60s...) and how the company culture suffered from McDonnell management. However, more importantly, each one of those mergers was the elimination of competition.
If all of the many defunct aerospace companies hadn't been merged into a tiny few, they'd have to actually excel to win contracts.
Given an arbitrarily complex system, there are almost always perverse incentives that can be gamed.
For large and old interests such as Boeing, I also always suspect a Byzantine bureaucracy full of senior and mid-level executives who spend much of their time trying to justify their paychecks and, so, their fiefdoms. Inevitably, this leads to massive inefficiencies, duplicative and redundant projects and organizations, and conflict.
The net outcome is usually:
Sounds like just another part of the American military industrial complex to me, but you're definitely right. Easy to blame mismanagement at the top while missing that reality.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/the-surprise-is-not-that-boeing-lost-commercial-crew-but-that-it-finished-at-all/?comments=1&comments-page=1
Don't make the mistake of attributing SpaceX's competence to Elon Musk. Gwynne Shotwell is pretty well known for both being the real leader of that company, and doing her best from keeping Musk from dipping his fingers in their day to day operations, no matter how much he loves to give off the perception that he's personally designed every piece of hardware they've launched.
SpaceX is a very effective, competant company despite Elon, not because of him. They'd be just as effective no matter who they were owned by as long as the owner allowed Shotwell the control she currently has.
No I know. It's just easy and appealing to make Musk jokes. His companies are generally better for him not being around. Twitter taking up all his stupid time is certainly great for SpaceX and Tesla.
What SpaceX achieved is remarkable. They went from nearly failing to beeing seem as a wildcard provider, and have now emerged as a reliable partner NASA can rely on.
Hopefully this debacle doesn't prove to be the end of Boeing's space division, and instead marks the beginning of major internal reforms.
This is like a 80s science fiction novel actually came to life. Evil X corporation strands astronauts in space because of greed and immunity from prosecution thanks to politicians in their pocket. Even more evil billionaire comes to the rescue to consolidate his grip on humanity like some Bond villain. But in the meantime our heroes are stuck up in space, doing science sure, but all free agency removed from them.