Did all of Boeing's engineers vanish into the rapture? Are they shuffling in tail pipe installers from SpiritAirlines to do the math for their rocket launches? LOL. The general aviation side of Boeing has as much to do with their rocket programs as the web developers at "X" do with with Elons 13+ billion dollar subsidized rocket company.
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T-12 Minutes for S30 static fire 🚀


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It's great to have to research the inner workings of a company to see if your life is in the hands of competent people, or the type of people who can't install a fucking door correctly. :-)
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never mind, hearing "scrubbed"
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You're aware that the most recent two-year delay was because their last test launch test had multiple failures, right?
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Figuratively? Yes. They've been losing older engineers to retirement and younger engineers to New Space companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and RocketLab.
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From the outside it just looks like they had a reading that wasn't nominal and the engineers scrubbed the mission. That's not a "failure" that's somebody doing their job. And if I'm tasked with flying out on one of these things that's what I'd want to see. Musk may or may not have allowed that. Musk is in love with himself and his public image and if I'm a hard nosed NASA astronaut that scares me more than a buzzing oxygen valve. And you also have to look at the culture that SpaceX comes out of. Tesla is heavily subsidized by the government and they're allowed to ship out an auto-pilot feature that caused 700+ crashes and plenty of death and destruction. Boeing aviation had TWO crashes and ate shit, had public hearings and lost considerable stock value. Which side is going to be more likely to listen to engineers and which would go "agile" and tolerate risk? It's probably going to be the side that gets cute with industry terms like "rapid unplanned disassembly".
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Ship 30 static fire attempt in roughly an hour.


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Musk doesn't get to personally decide if a mission scrubs or not, and SpaceX has scrubbed plenty of launches. In fact, SpaceX just scrubbed a hotfire yesterday.

Also, Boeing Starliner failed its first launch because the clock in the control program was wrong, causing the engines to fire early and use up their fuel too quickly, meaning that it could not reach its intended orbit. How the control program was allowed to go to launch without being fully tested is beyond me.

If I had to choose a program to put me into space, I'd pick the one with the proven successful program.
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While I give Elon credit for setting ambitious visions for the future, the reality is that a ton of SpaceX's success comes from their operational excellence, and I give most of the credit for that to Gwynne rather than Elon. I largely discredit anyone's opinion about SpaceX if they don't understand her role in all of this. (I'm confident that Tesla would be in much better shape if they had a "Gwynne" of their own.)

More broadly, it's pretty clear that seamonster doesn't actually understand this stuff, so the debate isn't really worth the effort.
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For the record:

#Starliner launch update:

NASA, @BoeingSpace and @ULALaunch are now targeting no earlier than 6:16pm ET May 17 for the launch of the agency's Boeing Crew Flight Test to @Space_Station, following a valve replacement on ULA's Atlas V rocket: https://t.co/NBSVcFQrnB pic.twitter.com/ayQGXFSkKW

— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) May 8, 2024

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From flying customer satellites, cargo and astronauts to orbit and deploying additional @Starlink satellites to connect millions of people around the world, it’s been an extraordinary year so far and we're not even halfway done yet!

— Gwynne Shotwell (@Gwynne_Shotwell) May 14, 2024

On pace for ~135 Falcon launches in 2024. 🚀 🤯

Go SpaceX! Go Falcon!
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nm
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You have to wonder if this thing will ever make it to regular service. It seems cursed.

Here’s the latest from NASA on Starliner. The path forward is unclear for the Crew Flight Test, and there’s a real possibility of a longer delay. pic.twitter.com/wHl2KeRCSS

— Stephen Clark (@StephenClark1) May 22, 2024

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The fourth flight test of Starship could launch as soon as June 5, pending regulatory approvalhttps://t.co/XjreI7nQOp pic.twitter.com/2tv2s1yJ5F

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) May 24, 2024

UPCOMING LAUNCH
STARSHIP'S FOURTH FLIGHT TEST

The fourth flight test of Starship could launch as soon as June 5, pending regulatory approval.

A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. The launch window will open as early as 7 a.m. CT. As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to stay tuned to our X account for updates.

Starship’s third flight test made tremendous strides towards a future of rapidly reliable reusable rockets. The test completed several exciting firsts, including the first Starship reentry from space, the first ever opening and closing of Starship’s payload door in space, and a successful propellant transfer demonstration. This last test provided valuable data for eventual ship-to-ship propellant transfers that will enable missions like returning astronauts to the Moon under NASA’s Artemis program.

The fourth flight test turns our focus from achieving orbit to demonstrating the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy. The primary objectives will be executing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico with the Super Heavy booster, and achieving a controlled entry of Starship.

To accomplish this, several software and hardware upgrades have been made to increase overall reliability and address lessons learned from Flight 3. The SpaceX team will also implement operational changes, including the jettison of the Super Heavy’s hot-stage following boostback to reduce booster mass for the final phase of flight.

Flight 4 will fly a similar trajectory as the previous flight test, with Starship targeted to splashdown in the Indian Ocean. This flight path does not require a deorbit burn for reentry, maximizing public safety while still providing the opportunity to meet our primary objective of a controlled Starship reentry.

The fourth flight of Starship will aim to bring us closer to the rapidly reusable future on the horizon. We’re continuing to rapidly develop Starship, putting flight hardware in a flight environment to learn as quickly as possible as we build a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond.



LFG!!!
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