BREAKING Space News: Starliner Drama & Asteroid Mining Crackdown

Your Comprehensive Guide to the New Space Economy

G. Pettit here, 

Ready-for-launch into the Breaking Bulletin, our special new edition of the Launchpad Newsletter, covering the latest and most impactful breaking news in the New Space Economy that could affect your career, company, or investments, in a single condensed story.

Breaking Business Bulletin: Starliner Drama

The bad press for Boeing just keeps stacking up.

In case you’ve been living on a remote space station lately, Boeing’s airline division has come under intense scrutiny for rampant quality issues and the mysterious deaths of not one, but two whistleblowers. Yikes.

But Boeing Space, the company’s space manufacturing and operations side, has not escaped the wave of dissection either. It’s flagship product, the Starliner crew capsule, has been met with calls from its own contractors to stand down from flight.

The Starliner program is already nearly 5 years behind schedule, and has suffered through numerous small-scale delays in the weeks leading up to its May Xth launch, which as of this writing is now no earlier than May 21st.

While these mini delays are par for the course in launch operations (better safe than sorry, right?), the optimism behind its maiden flight has been tainted by an official statement from a component subcontractor that the launch has a high “risk of disaster.”

ValveTech, a longtime aerospace vendor, came forward with claims that a valve issue on the Atlas V rocket carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams has yet to be resolved, encouraging the entire craft to be grounded. The contractors claims were heeded, with the launch delayed once more shortly after, and reported helium leaks found within the service module.

Already $1.5 billion dollars overbudget, Boeing has taken serious losses on the Starliner program, once viewed as the next-generation spacecraft for reaching Earth orbit and the International Space Station, and having been awarded hundreds of millions in funding for development of NASA’s Commercial Crew program.

With speculation abound on the lifespan of Starliner, given its massive cost and the planned decomissioning of the ISS in 2031 (its as-of-yet sole destination and source of income), only time will tell if Boeing’s massive investments will pay off.

More Space Stories to Watch Out For

🚀 Sustainability in space, and more line items to meet on your next NASA contract bid

🛰️ Aspiring space miners beware: you may be regulated before you even break ground (far less get your quadrillions in the bank)

🪶 Don’t short space tourism stocks just yet: Blue Origin is back in the race with its next New Shepard launch, carrying national heroes and tech bros alike

ADVERTISE // CAREERS // CONTACT

 COPYRIGHT © 2024 SPACE LAUNCH AGENCY LLC