SpaceX launch to retrieve NASA astronauts highlights growing lead over Boeing in commercial space industry

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When NASA first awarded contracts to provide transportation for its Commercial Crew Program to SpaceX and Boeing (BA) in 2014, the latter was considered the safe entity. A legacy aerospace company, Boeing had, in many ways, built the foundation for the US space program over the course of decades.

However, on Thursday, Elon Musk’s firm will be tasked with completing a mission Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft could not. NASA and SpaceX plan to return NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore from the International Space Station back to Earth on board the Crew Dragon spacecraft eight months after the initial return date.

The role reversal highlights SpaceX’s growing lead over Boeing in a commercial space industry increasingly driven by newcomers bringing a tech startup-like mentality to space exploration. Twelve years after the US retired The Space Shuttle program, SpaceX is on track to launch its 15th crewed mission, while Boeing has failed to complete one.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore (L) and Suni Williams, wearing Boeing spacesuits, depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy Space Center for Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to board the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft for the Crew Flight Test launch, on June 5, 2024. Boeing on June 5 will try once more to launch astronauts aboard a Starliner capsule bound for the International Space Station. Liftoff is targeted for 10:52 am (1452 GMT) for a roughly one-week stay at the orbital laboratory. (Photo by Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo / AFP) (Photo by MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images)
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore (L) and Suni Williams, wearing Boeing spacesuits, depart for a test launch at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on June 5, 2024. (MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP via Getty Images) · MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO via Getty Images

“We want to further understand the root causes and understand the design improvements so that the Boeing Starliner will serve as an important assured crew access to the ISS,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said last month, in announcing the agency’s decision to forego the astronauts’ return on board the Boeing spacecraft.

Publicly, Nelson has maintained his confidence in the company, saying he has “100%” faith in the return of the Starliner, given NASA’s “extensive cooperative working relationship” with Boeing.

That has done little to quiet speculation around the future of Boeing’s space program at a time when the company faces a multitude of challenges in its core commercial plane business, stemming from fatal crashes that have only amplified fears that the firm has strayed from its strong engineering foundation.

"You have a balance sheet that’s been weakened," Bank of America aerospace research analyst Ron Epstein said in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, highlighting the need for a culture change. "You have customers that aren’t happy. They’re being investigated by multiple government entities. It’s a heavy lift."

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of four lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of four lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/John Raoux) · ASSOCIATED PRESS

That was before 33,000 union machinists went on strike, halting production of Boeing’s jets and prompting the company to furlough tens of thousands of workers to conserve cash.

Space programs remain a small part of Boeing’s business, but the division that once posted strong profits and steady revenue has started to falter in recent years. Since 2022, Boeing’s defense and space division lost $6 billion, according to the AP, dragged down by fixed price contracts for NASA and the Pentagon.

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