Boeing Staffers 'Humiliated' as Elon Musk's SpaceX Steps in to Save Stranded Astronauts: Report
Boeing employees are far from pleased.
NASA has chosen Elon Musk’s SpaceX as the safer option to bring back two astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for months, according to the New York Post.
On Saturday, NASA announced that instead of returning to Earth on the Starliner capsule that originally transported them to the ISS, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will remain in space until next year, as reported by the Associated Press.
Wilmore and Williams arrived at the space station in June on what was intended to be an eight-day mission. However, technical issues during their flight resulted in an indefinite stay aboard the ISS, with no clear timeline for their return.
NASA has now stated that the astronauts will return in February, as no earlier flight from the space station to Earth can accommodate the additional two people.
The empty Starliner capsule will land autonomously in September.
This decision has left Boeing employees feeling “humiliated,” according to a Florida-based Boeing worker who spoke with the Post, though the employee’s name was not disclosed.
The worker described this humiliation as adding to a series of setbacks that have plagued Boeing, especially after a part of a Boeing airliner broke off mid-flight in January, prompting more intense scrutiny of Boeing’s operations and exposing multiple production flaws.
“We’ve had so many embarrassments lately, and we’re under a microscope. This just made it, like, 100 times worse,” the worker said. “We hate SpaceX. We talk s*** about them all the time, and now they’re bailing us out.”
“It’s shameful. I’m embarrassed. I’m horrified,” the worker added.
Morale is “in the toilet,” the worker said, noting that Boeing blames NASA for this public rebuke.
“We believed that Starliner could bring them home safely, but NASA didn’t want to chance it,” the employee said.
“They have their own PR issues and don’t need two dead astronauts. But we didn’t think that there would be dead astronauts. We’d never have recommended that they use us if they thought that it was going to be unsafe for them,” the worker added.
Steve Stich, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program manager, mentioned that the discussions between NASA and Boeing “came down to a little disagreement about risk.”
Boeing has incurred approximately $1.5 billion in cost overruns on the $4.5 billion contract to develop the Starliner.
This raises concerns about the project's future, according to Bloomberg, which noted that new Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg might consider terminating the venture.
“Do they ultimately exit the program because it’s too complicated and because the other guy can do it better? It can happen,” said Robert Spingarn, an analyst with Melius Research.