…has been reassigned. A lot of speculation as to the reason and timing in this thread.

It’s kind of wild that the NASA official who is arguably most responsible for SpaceX getting a commercial crew contract a decade ago is getting pushed out at the same time Dragon saves the agency’s astronauts.https://t.co/IwPeRs1x8T

— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) August 24, 2024

It’s unclear to me whether he is being blamed for Starliner, or if this is Boeing’s revenge for the NASA decision to rescue with Crew Dragon. But if the latter, it would have been pressure coming from Boeing’s friends on the Hill.

[Sunday-morning update]

Will Boeing ever deliver on its contract?

With all the talk a decade ago about how SpaceX wouldn’t deliver and how prudent it was to give the lion’s share of the funds to Boeing, there should be plenty of crow to go around.

[Update a few minutes later]

Boeing was paid billions more than SpaceX to be seven years late on a mission it could not complete . . . And will now be rescued from total disaster by SpaceX

Never forget, many bureaucrats wanted to sole source all of this to Boeing. pic.twitter.com/QEJ0ERuDq8

— Ashlee Vance (@ashleevance) August 25, 2024

[Update late morning]

Some may be wondering what I think about the Starliner decision in the context of my book and our need to be willing to accept higher levels of risk. The point of the book was not that we should be reckless, but that the risk must match the reward.

— SafeNotAnOption (@SafeNotAnOption) August 25, 2024

There was no payoff in risking the astronaut's lives to come home in a flawed vehicle, other than to Boeing's pride (which would be an empty vessel by now if they had a smidgen of self awareness) and their bottom line.

— SafeNotAnOption (@SafeNotAnOption) August 25, 2024