4 years in the past, SpaceX flew its equal of this week’s Starliner mission — the primary launch of the corporate’s Crew Dragon spacecraft with two NASA astronauts aboard.
The company celebrated loudly because the flight ended NASA’s almost decade-long dependence on Russia’s Soyuz rocket to ship astronauts to orbit. Partly, that has made the debut of Starliner on Monday night time nearly like an afterthought, with Boeing seemingly light-years behind SpaceX.
Certainly, on Monday, earlier than Starliner’s launch, Elon Musk, the founding father of SpaceX, posted on his social media web site, X, “The world doesn’t want one other capsule.”
In a separate posting, Mr. Musk sharply criticized Boeing. “Though Boeing obtained $4.2 billion to develop an astronaut capsule and SpaceX solely obtained $2.6 billion, SpaceX completed 4 years sooner,” he wrote. “Too many non-technical managers at Boeing.”
A Boeing spokeswoman declined to remark.
Whereas Mr. Musk may assume Starliner is superfluous, NASA officers have typically stated it is very important have contingency choices if one thing goes flawed.
“It will give us that extra functionality as a result of we all the time search for a backup,” Invoice Nelson, the NASA administrator, stated throughout a information convention on Friday.
Dana Weigel, program supervisor of the area station for NASA, gave the instance of when a Soyuz docked on the area station suffered a coolant leak in 2022.
If the Soyuz have been the one technique of transportation, that might have led to a scenario the place the lives of the astronauts have been genuinely in danger. However a SpaceX Crew Dragon was additionally docked there, offering a backup.
“If we needed to deliver the entire crew house on a SpaceX Dragon, we may have achieved that,” Ms. Weigel stated.
For NASA, the extra choices it has, the higher. If Crew Dragon or Starliner suffered a failure and have been grounded, the opposite would nonetheless be obtainable. That lessens the likelihood that the USA may once more must depend on Russians and the whims of Vladimir Putin for launching folks to area.
“The extra dissimilar capabilities you might have, the extra strong you’re for coping with points,” Ms. Weigel stated.
Throughout the Starliner delays, SpaceX has efficiently launched 9 Crew Dragon missions for NAS the take a look at flight in Might 2020 adopted by eight operational missions that carried crews to the area station for six-month stays.
SpaceX has additionally launched 4 non-public astronaut missions utilizing the identical Crew Dragons. The primary one, Inspiration4, was financed by Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur. Whereas that flight went solely to orbit and to not the I.S.S., Axiom Area of Houston has since flown three non-public astronaut missions to the area station, with a fourth which may launch as quickly as August.
Mr. Isaacman can be planning to return to area later this yr with one other Crew Dragon mission, referred to as Polaris Daybreak, which is aiming to incorporate the primary spacewalk throughout a business spaceflight.
