Commentary
The long-running spectacle of astronauts seemingly stranded in space by Boeing’s defective Starliner CST-100 spacecraft is yet another woe added to Boeing’s growing list. In sharp contrast, SpaceX, the other company tasked with ferrying International Space Station (ISS) crew members, is in the midst of a long run of successes and achievements.
One of these great achievements occurred in 2023 when SpaceX achieved a record 98 successful rocket launches, including two successful missions to the ISS to deliver and return crew to Earth. The 98 launches carried a whopping payload of more than 1.2 million kilograms (more than 2.7 million pounds) into orbit. Further, SpaceX has successfully executed eight missions under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program while Boeing is still struggling to complete one.
That Boeing would find itself in this bind would have been unthinkable back in 2014 when it was awarded $4.2 billion, the lion’s share of NASA’s $6.8 billion Commercial Crew Program that was to ferry astronauts back and forth to the ISS. It was unthinkable because it was Boeing’s participation in the program to take over space crew transportation for the ISS that gave NASA and Congress the confidence to outsource these duties to the private sector.
After all, Boeing has been involved with America’s space program for more than 50 years, including the Mercury Program, Gemini Apollo, the Saturn V rocket, and so on. So, when the contracts were awarded, no one expected that 10 years later, Boeing would have only recently attempted just one crew replacement mission, while SpaceX, with only $2.6 billion in funding from NASA, about 40 percent less than Boeing initially received, would have executed eight successful missions to the ISS.
Suffice it to say that over the last 10 years, a relative upstart has far surpassed an aerospace giant with a long and storied history of involvement with America’s space program. This begs the question of how a relatively small company of just more than 13,000 employees can be vastly outperforming a company with some 170,000 employees, including 57,600 engineers.
The answer is very short: Elon Musk. And it’s not just because Mr. Musk is brilliant, it’s because Mr. Musk has been able to attract scientists, engineers, technicians, fabricators, project managers, and others who share his vision of vastly expanding spaceflight and a colonized Mars and who, perhaps, not incidentally, believe in living on other planets.
The vision thing is immensely important, and in terms of motivation, it is more important than mere money. Yet in pursuing the excellence necessary to realize the vision, SpaceX is on its way to being profitable, even as it continues to be a trailblazer in space-based technology. In contrast to SpaceX, Boeing is seemingly being governed without any bold motivating vision around which Boeing employees can unite.
Sure, back in January 2022, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun gave a speech espousing innovation, but because virtually every CEO likes to talk about innovation, it has become what many feel is a pro forma talking point, undermining its ability to inspire. Mr. Calhoun’s vision was further undermined by his 2022 revelation that Boeing is not planning on delivering any new airplane designs until 2035. This means that by the time Boeing reveals new plane designs, Mr. Musk plans to have been to Mars multiple times. Will Mr. Musk and SpaceX be able to accomplish this? We don’t know. But Mr. Musk’s plans to do so are undoubtedly big, bold goals that excite the imagination.
Hence, from the vision perspective, Boeing is not in the same ballpark as SpaceX, but then again, very few companies are. And to be fair, Boeing, unlike SpaceX, is a publicly traded company that is focused on keeping its stockholders happy via good quarterly results. This focus leads to a short-term mindset that studies have shown does not produce the best long-term results for the company or shareholder.
What’s more, a short-term mindset leads to being risk averse when it comes to taking actions that might be interpreted negatively by the market in the short run, despite being potentially better for the company in the long run. For example, in sharp contrast to NASA and large defense contractors such as Boeing, SpaceX has embraced gaining knowledge and experience by testing actual rockets and space vehicles versus just modeling and simulating them.
SpaceX has done so even at the cost of suffering the crashes and destruction of some of its rockets and space vehicles. Take the Falcon I rocket, whose first three launches over the March 2006 to August 2008 time period resulted in explosive failures. But, because Mr. Musk takes the long view and understands the value of such testing, SpaceX persisted and the fourth Falcon I launch was a success. By being willing to fail, SpaceX was able to garner data that could not be created via simulation or modeling. This data was critical to developing what is arguably the most successful and innovative space launch vehicle of all time—the Falcon 9, whose first-stage booster can land itself and be reused. Further, the Falcon 9 has become the standard for safety and reliability when it comes to space launch vehicles.
To this day Mr. Musk maintains the same “willing to fail” mindset, and since April 20, 2023, we have seen three very expensive Starship space vehicles destroyed in the cause of developing a safe, reliable spacecraft capable of carrying passengers to the moon and to Mars. And before SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft executed its first successful mission to the ISS to fulfill its NASA Commercial Crew Program obligations, it also blew up one time unexpectedly, as well as being destroyed intentionally once by SpaceX.
Boeing has taken a much different approach in fulfilling its NASA Commercial Crew Program obligations, opting to minimize the number of actual rocket launches and instead expend huge sums on modeling and simulation. While this approach has prevented the embarrassment of failed launches and rockets blowing up, many believe, including myself, that SpaceX’s approach of testing real rockets and vehicles generates better and more reliable results and ends up being less expensive. Evidence that this is the case is demonstrated by the fact that since NASA awarded a total of $6.8 billion in 2014 for the Commercial Crew Program, SpaceX has done far more with its $2.6 billion from NASA (eight successful crew swap missions) than Boeing has with its $4.2 billion from NASA (one partially completed crew swap).
This all adds up to a smaller company led by a person with a big bold vision vastly outperforming a company that has more engineers than the smaller company has in total employees. This doesn’t mean that Boeing should now set a goal to achieve interstellar travel, but it does suggest that along with a renewed focus on quality and less focus on quarterly results, Boeing should set big, bold goals and embrace a vision that its employees can get truly excited about.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
