GAME OVER! NASA Declared Boeing Starliner Useless - Can't BEAT SpaceX!

SpaceX has made legacy manufacturer Boeing eat dust as NASA's boss finally declares that the Starliner has no chance of beating SpaceX. Once the underdog of the aerospace industry and on the brink of bankruptcy, SpaceX has grown leaps and bounds gaining praise from even its sternest critics. But how did SpaceX edge out Boeing and what sort of partnership does the company have When the commercial race to space started, there were two companies actively competing. The first was Boeing, a legacy aerospace company with experience in aircraft development. It was served as a primary U.S. defense contractor for years and a titan in global aviation. The second was SpaceX, a company with no real history except for a young founder with a few successes under its belt. At the start of the race, the idea that Boeing would dominate commercial space travel was a given. However, things didn't go as planned. A series of errors, failures, and delays put a wedge in Boeing spacecraft development. Coupled with sticky valves, software issues, botched test flights, and lawsuits, Boeing was scrambling to find its footing while SpaceX was already heading for the launch pad. Fast forward to 2022. SpaceX, now regarded as a leader in the aerospace industry, has launched its fifth astronaut launch for NASA to the International Space Station with the Crew Dragon vehicle and sent over 3,000 satellites to orbit with Falcon 9. The company launched 46 more Starlink satellites this year with the Falcon. Meanwhile, Boeing's CST-100 Starliner just performed its first flight demonstration to the ISS two and a half years behind the original deadline. The substantial success of SpaceX in the years of its operation and NASA's resilience on the company has made Bill Nelson, the current NASA administrator, more open to the idea of commercial space companies. During his time as a Florida congressman and then senator, he led the charge against using U.S. commercial space companies for space travel and fought against the Obama administration's effort to partner with private companies. According to former second-in-command at NASA, Lori Garver Nelson, disliked SpaceX and its ever-controversial leader Elon Musk. When Musk publicly claimed that he could help NASA, she recounted Nelson not being too happy about the statement, telling her to get her boy Elon in line. As a born-again supporter of commercial space, he has expressed his support for NASA Commercial Crew Program and claimed to have always supported commercial space. He claims to have laid the foundation for commercial space through a series of laws dating back to the mid-80s. Speaking on it, he said, I think the private space industry is extremely beneficial. Just look at what SpaceX has already accomplished. To him, awarding fixed contracts to private space companies was a way to encourage competition and give NASA various avenues to explore space travel. The 2021 fiscal report of the space agency also saw it dedicating 80 percent of its budget on contracting commercial space companies. In response to SpaceX's claims that the Starship will be more powerful than NASA SLS when it launches, producing 17 million pounds of thrust compared to SLS's 9.5 million, Nelson stated once again that he didn't see it as a threat because of the achievements of commercial space companies, especially SpaceX. His attempt to backtrack and gloss over his comments on SpaceX and commercial space companies has raised eyebrows, but it is not completely unexpected. If SpaceX wasn't present, NASA would have to uncomfortably rely on Russia time and time again and may not have made the progress it has today. However, SpaceX wasn't always like this. When it was founded in 2002, the company was running on funds provided by Elon Musk with little to no money for hiring professionals. By September 2008, the company had almost failed itself out of existence, with every attempt to launch a rocket ending badly. Almost bankrupt, Elon was able to put together some resources for a fourth launch, setting it on an upward trajectory from that moment on. The company won its first NASA contract, valued at $6.8 billion, along with Boeing to ferry NASA's astronauts to the ISS. SpaceX was awarded another $900 million contract for launching Crew 7, Crew 8, and Crew 9 to the ISS. In August, NASA extended its partnership with SpaceX by awarding a $1.4 billion contract for five additional missions. Hit the like button if you've been enjoying the video so far and subscribe to the channel for more fascinating videos. The contract will extend their partnership through 2030, bringing SpaceX's total contract value to nearly $5 billion for 14 fully operational astronaut missions. By May 2022, the company was valued at $127 billion, finally becoming a company known for its reusable rockets and efficiency with a goal of making humanity a multi-planetary species. And since its Crew Dragon made its debut in 2020, SpaceX has flown more astronauts to space than any space agency or commercial space company has done. It has surpassed the total number of astronauts launched by China and exceeded the performance of Russia's Soyuz vehicle. The Artemis Program and SpaceX In 2011, NASA shut down its space shuttle program because of high costs, slow turnaround, and devastating incidents, among other things. As a result, it had to rely solely on Russia's three-seat Soyuz aircraft paying a hefty premium for the opportunity. Through its Artemis program, NASA plans to independently renew America's presence on the moon and ISS, placing the United States once again as the frontrunner for space travel. The end goal of the program is to use the moon as a stepping stone for the future exploration of Mars. Three-time NASA astronaut Steve Swanson highlighted the importance of the Artemis program, saying the real goal is Mars, and we will use the moon as a testbed because Mars is a very difficult mission. This is where SpaceX comes into play. SpaceX has been reliably working with NASA on several astronaut missions, and in April 2021, the agency selected SpaceX to develop a key part of its Artemis program and establish the United States' presence on the moon. SpaceX will develop the first commercial human lander to carry two American astronauts to the lunar surface. After awarding the $2.9 billion contract, Lisa Watson Morgan, the HLS program manager, commented, We're confident in NASA's partnership with SpaceX to help us achieve the Artemis mission and look forward to continuing our work toward landing astronauts on the moon to prepare for the next giant leap towards Mars. The contract is 13 percent of what it would have cost NASA to develop the spacecrafts themselves, which would have come to $25 billion. To land on the moon, the proposed Starship will rendezvous with NASA Orion while the spacecraft is in orbit, and two astronauts will be transferred to the Starship. The Orion will remain in orbit as the Starship lowers the astronauts to the lunar surface and takes them back to Orion once the mission is complete. At that point, the Starship is not equipped to make a return back to Earth, as only the Orion is capable of getting back. For the project, SpaceX is going to work closely with NASA to collaborate on the lander design and ensure that the end product meets NASA's requirements and human spaceflight standards. According to the statement from Nelson, SpaceX is well on track to develop a spacecraft that is capable of landing astronauts on the moon. NASA intended to kick-start the Artemis program this year through the Artemis 1 mission, tagged a tremendous turn of history. It plans to launch its 322-foot SLS rocket for the first time in order to achieve its mission of returning to the moon by 2025. This mission will be a stress test to demonstrate the SLS and its associated systems are good enough to take humans to the moon and back in the coming years. But things didn't go as expected. The test flight for SLS was plagued with technical difficulties. An attempt to launch the rocket in August was aborted due to problems with the engines. The launch slated to happen in September fell through due to hydrogen leaks. The mega-rocket SLS took 12 years to build, costing $23 billion and is still not ready for launch. This doesn't include the Orion that was developed at a cost of $20.4 billion as NASA's next-generation human spaceflight capsule. The mission is now set to happen in November, and if it is successful, preparations for Artemis 2 will begin immediately with astronauts on board. Its success will see humans land on the moon for the first time since 1972, and according to Bill Nelson, they would go back to stay, to learn, to create, to develop new technologies and new systems and new spacecrafts in order to go to Mars. NASA is expected to spend a total of $93 billion on the Artemis program between 2012 and 2025. According to NASA Inspector General Paul Martin, a single Artemis launch will cost NASA $4.1 billion, whereas SpaceX Starship launches are expected to cost less than $10 million, and the current Falcon 9 launches cost $62 million. NASA has gone from underdog to dominator in the past decade, now handling two-thirds of NASA's launches and research payloads and making innovations in the aerospace industry. Do you think Boeing will catch up to SpaceX anytime soon? Type yes or no in the comment section below. In case you want to watch more fascinating videos, click the videos on the screen now. If you enjoyed the video, don't forget to subscribe with all notifications turned on.