BA - Boeing's Bad Yes. But Even SpaceX Is Not Perfect.
2024-07-20 06:06:00 ET
Boeing (NYSE: BA) stock gets a bad rap -- perhaps deservedly so. Quality problems plague the company's 737 commercial airliner program . In space, the company's Starliner crewed spacecraft, designed to compete with SpaceX's Crew Dragon on contracts to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station, also has a troubled history.
Of the Starliner's Orbital Flight Tests (OFTs), there's a failed test flight (uncrewed), one partially successful test flight (also uncrewed), and now, finally, a test flight with two crew members aboard, which has been stuck up at the ISS for more than a month , and seems unable to return.
In a media update last week, Starliner crew members Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore expressed confidence that despite Starliner's issues, the spacecraft will still get them home, "no problem." However, NASA has confirmed problems with the Boeing spaceship's thrusters overheating. At least five thrusters failed en route to the space station, in addition to problems with a stuck propellant valve and multiple helium leaks.
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Boeing's Bad, Yes. But Even SpaceX Is Not Perfect.