On what planet was SLS ever "hampered by a lack of funding"? I don't think it's in this solar system. I'd say it's gotten over twenty billion dollars too much in funding. https://t.co/G33n7Cx3IL
If I’d been one of those AvWeek reporters, I’d have asked her to expand on that.
21 thoughts on “The Latest From Boeing”
I saw that earlier, and assumed it was a joke. I’m appalled to see it wasn’t.
This along with many other events force me to consider the possibility that Boeing’s goal is to utterly beclown itself. Nothing else explains their words and actions quite so well.
2019 was a very bad year for Boeing. 2020 has sucked for all of us. But the future for Boeing simply looks worse.
If Elon had a tenth what Boeing was granted to develop SLS, we would have a base on the Moon and Mars by now.
I don’t think Musk can go any faster, no matter how much money he throws at SpaceX. Some things just take time.
Additional facilities for more parallel teams.
But without activities funding development, would any of this have happened? Maybe but in this reality, necessity was the mother of invention.
He could be right but would giving more money to Boeing fix the problems? Doubtful because the problems they have are structural to their business model.
The opportunity costs here are a terrible indictment of Boeing, NASA, and our congress.
I’m not so sure. With more funding they could have built the SLS core stage out of $100 dollar bill/epoxy composite.
*starts engineering the SLS block III*
$100 dollar bill: 75% cotton, 25% linen.
Cotton: Elongation at break 5% to 10%.
Linen: Elongation at break 2.7% to 3.5%.
As long as they are politically as pure as the driven snow, it matters not whether they ever produce anything for the money. And, you know, if I were an astronaut, I’d be much happier to never have to ride in a spacecraft on a rocket, both of which were built under the management of insane people.
(P.S. I’ll never fly on a 737 MAX.)
Aren’t all rocket surgeons just a tiny bit insane?
I’m beginning to believe that the closer that SpaceX comes to orbiting the SuperHeavy/Starship vehicle, the louder the excuses/praise from NASA for the SLS must become, in order for NASA to keep getting funded at all. Those people developing SLS are the voters of Senator Shelby, and he wants them happy and calm on the day in November 2022 when they go to vote for their Senator! The way to achieve that is praise for SLS, …no matter how ludicrous it is.
That’s the strategy here, no matter how morally painful the tactics are to achieve it, or how much their face muscles hurt when they smile as they speak such words. NASA have accepted they can only cancel SLS when they are rid of Shelby.
Or, when Shelby is just a member of the minority party of the Senate.
SLS was a bipartisan policy disaster. But Shelby will be retiring very soon.
About a year ago I was looking at buying Boeing stock. I’m sooo glad I didn’t.
Tough to say where rock bottom is especially while government capture is lucrative, results are also expected.
You can’t really blame Boeing for fattening up on government pork. Until Elon came along there was no real competition. In that situation, Boeing didn’t need to accomplish anything beyond killer powerpoint shows of how their rocket might someday leave the ground (It hasn’t, and probably will not.) Now, Spacex lowered cost to LEO, and most other Os, by a factor of a heck of a lot. Some say ten, some more, some less. Boeing might be able to catch up and they might not. Their only saving grace is both Elon and Bezos have their big rockets powered by some mix of hydrocarbon fuel and LOX. So far, there is very little carbon on the moon. Boeing is using LH2 and LOX, both readily available on the moon. My guess is, Elon and Bezos will give NASA and Boeing the moon, while they fight over everything else.
Realistically, SLS is dead if Starship works. So from a financial viewpoint it’s better for Boeing to rake in as much money as they can now than to hope they make some money from launches in the future.
They need a thousand starships for the planned Mars trips. Boeing can build some under contract when they get the bugs worked out of the design.
There are many many things Boeing could do to profit from a push to Mars. Launch is perhaps the least important part of it.
Boeing will probably always be involved someway even if it isn’t in launch. Their hope is with ULA who is hamstrung to some degree by using BO as a supplier. Who knows how BO will turn out but it looks like they are trying to capture government much like Boeing did.
Bypassing the Moon as a primary objective could be a great move as there are so many more resources out there, even if they are harder to get at the moment.
I saw that earlier, and assumed it was a joke. I’m appalled to see it wasn’t.
This along with many other events force me to consider the possibility that Boeing’s goal is to utterly beclown itself. Nothing else explains their words and actions quite so well.
2019 was a very bad year for Boeing. 2020 has sucked for all of us. But the future for Boeing simply looks worse.
If Elon had a tenth what Boeing was granted to develop SLS, we would have a base on the Moon and Mars by now.
I don’t think Musk can go any faster, no matter how much money he throws at SpaceX. Some things just take time.
Additional facilities for more parallel teams.
But without activities funding development, would any of this have happened? Maybe but in this reality, necessity was the mother of invention.
He could be right but would giving more money to Boeing fix the problems? Doubtful because the problems they have are structural to their business model.
The opportunity costs here are a terrible indictment of Boeing, NASA, and our congress.
I’m not so sure. With more funding they could have built the SLS core stage out of $100 dollar bill/epoxy composite.
*starts engineering the SLS block III*
$100 dollar bill: 75% cotton, 25% linen.
Cotton: Elongation at break 5% to 10%.
Linen: Elongation at break 2.7% to 3.5%.
They could use dollar bills as fuel for the SRBs.
Here’s what Boeing is more concerned with these days…
As long as they are politically as pure as the driven snow, it matters not whether they ever produce anything for the money. And, you know, if I were an astronaut, I’d be much happier to never have to ride in a spacecraft on a rocket, both of which were built under the management of insane people.
(P.S. I’ll never fly on a 737 MAX.)
Aren’t all rocket surgeons just a tiny bit insane?
I’m beginning to believe that the closer that SpaceX comes to orbiting the SuperHeavy/Starship vehicle, the louder the excuses/praise from NASA for the SLS must become, in order for NASA to keep getting funded at all. Those people developing SLS are the voters of Senator Shelby, and he wants them happy and calm on the day in November 2022 when they go to vote for their Senator! The way to achieve that is praise for SLS, …no matter how ludicrous it is.
That’s the strategy here, no matter how morally painful the tactics are to achieve it, or how much their face muscles hurt when they smile as they speak such words. NASA have accepted they can only cancel SLS when they are rid of Shelby.
Or, when Shelby is just a member of the minority party of the Senate.
SLS was a bipartisan policy disaster. But Shelby will be retiring very soon.
About a year ago I was looking at buying Boeing stock. I’m sooo glad I didn’t.
Tough to say where rock bottom is especially while government capture is lucrative, results are also expected.
You can’t really blame Boeing for fattening up on government pork. Until Elon came along there was no real competition. In that situation, Boeing didn’t need to accomplish anything beyond killer powerpoint shows of how their rocket might someday leave the ground (It hasn’t, and probably will not.) Now, Spacex lowered cost to LEO, and most other Os, by a factor of a heck of a lot. Some say ten, some more, some less. Boeing might be able to catch up and they might not. Their only saving grace is both Elon and Bezos have their big rockets powered by some mix of hydrocarbon fuel and LOX. So far, there is very little carbon on the moon. Boeing is using LH2 and LOX, both readily available on the moon. My guess is, Elon and Bezos will give NASA and Boeing the moon, while they fight over everything else.
Realistically, SLS is dead if Starship works. So from a financial viewpoint it’s better for Boeing to rake in as much money as they can now than to hope they make some money from launches in the future.
They need a thousand starships for the planned Mars trips. Boeing can build some under contract when they get the bugs worked out of the design.
There are many many things Boeing could do to profit from a push to Mars. Launch is perhaps the least important part of it.
Boeing will probably always be involved someway even if it isn’t in launch. Their hope is with ULA who is hamstrung to some degree by using BO as a supplier. Who knows how BO will turn out but it looks like they are trying to capture government much like Boeing did.
Bypassing the Moon as a primary objective could be a great move as there are so many more resources out there, even if they are harder to get at the moment.