Boeing can recover from its Starliner troubles, but it can’t afford any other misfires Premium

SpaceX has launched its Crew Dragon spacecraft on a “rescue mission” to bring back two astronauts stranded at the International Space Station (ISS) since June.

SpaceX has launched its Crew Dragon spacecraft on a “rescue mission” to bring back two astronauts stranded at the International Space Station (ISS) since June. Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams travelled to the space station on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which was on its first mission with a human crew.

But several engines malfunctioned once in space and the vehicle was found to be leaking helium, which is essential for the functioning of its engines. After weeks of analysis and discussion by NASA and Boeing engineers, the space agency decided to send Wilmore and Williams home on the Crew Dragon because of safety concerns with Starliner.

For Boeing, this embarrassing episode is the latest in a long series of problems. They include fatal crashes of its 737 Max aircraft in 2018 and 2019 and a door that blew out mid-flight on a 737 Max 9 plane in January 2024.

Boeing’s Starliner craft has been beset with challenges since 2014 when Nasa awarded both Boeing and Space X with contracts to develop spacecraft that could transport astronauts and supplies to and from the ISS as part of its Commercial Crew Program (CCP).

Boeing received US$4.2 billion (£3bn) to develop the Starliner craft, while SpaceX received US$2.6 billion (£1.9 billion) to develop the Crew Dragon. Despite the lower contract value, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon has performed much better than Starliner, making a successful first crewed flight in 2020 and launching regularly to the ISS ever since. Starliner, meanwhile, has still not had a fully successful crewed flight.

SpaceX was seen as something of an upstart at the time the contract was awarded, so the outcome shows how much the landscape has shifted in the space sector. It’s also a vote in favour of the iterative, agile processes that Space X adopts, versus the more traditional, linear development processes at Boeing.

Boeing’s reputation for safety and reliability took a massive hit with the two fatal crashes of its 737 Max aircraft. According to a Congressional committee report from 2020, the accidents happened against a background of financial pressure to compete with Airbus’ relatively new A320neo family of aircraft.