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NASA hasn't been able since the Shuttle got retired in 2011. They've been relying first on Russian rockets and then on SpaceX ever since. There are several alte
by DennisP 3y ago
NASA hasn't been able since the Shuttle got retired in 2011. They've been relying first on Russian rockets and then on SpaceX ever since. There are several alternatives in development but nothing human-rated yet.
- rst 3y agoBoeing's Starliner is now expected to have a crewed flight test in April (after two shaky uncrewed test flights, the first nearly disastrous). Of course, by the standards being applied to SpaceX here, that could be described as "relying on Boeing"...
- jandrese 3y agoI definitely wouldn't volunteer to be on that first crewed flight of Starliner. Boeing has had some questionable engineering decisions in the last decade and it has shaken my confidence in the ability of their engineers to press back against management when there is an inconvenient truth.
- robbiep 3y agoBoeing space flight is on delicious cost plus contracts as opposed to trying to shave it down to the bone in 737 max
- DennisP 3y agoStarliner is not cost-plus. It's under the same program as SpaceX. > After several rounds of competitive development contracts within the Commercial Crew Program starting in 2010, NASA selected the Boeing Starliner, along with SpaceX Crew Dragon, for the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract round. > ...While the company had received $18 million under the NASA Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) contract by 2010 for early design work, substantial Boeing private funds would be required to complete development, even with Boeing competing for additional NASA contracts. This exposed Boeing to ordinary business financial risk that had not been a large part of traditional cost-plus contracting that Boeing had previously done for work on space capsules. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Starliner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Starliner
- robbiep 3y agoThanks for the correction
- firesteelrain 3y agoIn all fairness, NASA provides oversight for the Commercial Crew Program. This is better than the previous arrangements because there is incentive for companies to perform the contracted work on behalf of NASA rather than NASA taking on all the risk. Edit: Guess down voters don’t like this idea
- InSteady 3y agoIf this was reddit I would downvote you for that edit ;)
- firesteelrain 3y agoLol bad habits die hard
- DennisP 3y agoGood point. I was responding to the question above but at this point, NASA can legitimately consider SpaceX as part of their manned flight program. It makes way more sense to do it this way.
- firesteelrain 3y agoYes, exactly. I think they consider Boeing and SpaceX as “one of us”. It’s pitched this way on their website