The Boeing Starliner situation

[Dr Mordrid]

This is about the spacecraft malfunctioning at the International Space Station.

Clearly this is turned into a soap opera, and somewhat of a referendum on the Boeing company because of their mishandling of this development program.

The issues are complex so I thought I would post this video by NASASpaceFlight.com, an excellent source of space news where space professionals hang out . They have done an excellent job of simplifying and explaining the issues and problems, so partake if you are curious because there is a lot of nonsense in the news.

They were not stranded, they had plenty of food water etc on the station

There was a danger in coming down in Starliner, the vehicles control thrusters were acting completely crazy and in ways that have not been seen before. Coming down in a vehicle so afflicted could have resulted in a loss of the crew.

The astronauts are fine, NASA has elected to send Starliner back to Earth without the crew to meet its fate, and the crew will stay on the station until February or March when they will go home in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft which has proven exceedingly reliable.

https://youtu.be/XFSQK9z3fwI?si=SWTJgFxTeMktGUEa

If you have any questions not addressed go for it.

[Dr Mordrid]

Boeing Starliner will undock from the ISS September 6th under automation, time will be about 1800 Eastern.

There is still some risk that the thrusters could go wonky again, causing a recontact with the station, so they will have the Crew 8 Dragon and Soyuz prepared for lifeboat duty.

We shall see if it makes it down to earth in one piece, or as a smoking pile.

[Dr Mordrid]

The Boeing Starliner will separate from ISS evening of September 6th.

Landing: September 7th
Time: 0003 Eastern
Press conference: 0130 Eastern

+++++++++

"rescue mission" Crew 9's crew will be,

Commander: Nick Hague, NASA, USA

Pilot: Aleksandr Gorbunov

Butch and Suni will join the Crew 9 mission, coming down in February.

https://apnews.com/article/nasa-boeing-starliner-stuck-astronauts-6c2db96fa6c6859a48a8c26438fab1d5

,

[Dr Mordrid]

Follow up;

Boeing's new CEO has decided he's going to sell most of their space business, including Starliner. They would keep NASA's Space Launch System, basically because it's a cash cow - for now.

With some of their geostationary satellites breaking up in orbit, Starliners numerous failures and losing money, etc I'm not sure these assets will be easy to sell.

[Umfriend]

They're in a bit of a mess, actually the perfect company for my investment "strategy" (but to much cash per 100 and not sure how well I can trade US stock options atm and no cash available). Still some issues with their 737 MAX, Airbus doing well. Strikes and huge wage cost increases ahead. Possibly tariffs on raw materials. Raising capital. Management will be working hard to deal with these issues and come up on top.

[Dr Mordrid]

Boeing will be trying to raise $19 billion in a stock sale, and at the same time trying to shed their space business by selling much of it off. They are already trying to sell United Launch Alliance, which launches the Vulcan and the Atlas rockets. ULA is a joint venture with Lockheed Martin so they have to untie that knot too.

The problem with the whole thing is many of these assets have very little actual value because of their problems. They are at the program stage where the design engineers are gone, and all that's left is operations engineers to try and fix the mess.

I'm not sure investing in a hole like that is wise.

[Umfriend]

I'm not sure investing in a hole like that is wise.

We are never sure. My underlying assumption with these kind of things is that the market mostly prices in these factors / risks but can exaggerate. It may take a few years.

[Dr Mordrid]

We are never sure. My underlying assumption with these kind of things is that the market mostly prices in these factors / risks but can exaggerate. It may take a few years.

My problem is the culture change which occurred with the McDonnell Douglas merger in the 90s. Boeing went from an engineering focused company to one being run by a bunch of Jack Welch clones, pushing engineering to the back burner. 20 years of that has made them accompany they can barely engineer their way out of a paper bag. Turning that around is going to take a long time, and may well not be successful.