SpaceX Rockets ahead of Boeing with Crew-1 launch

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The current partition: SpaceX 2, Boeing (NYSE: BA)0.

At 11:01 p.m. EST on November 17, approximately 27 hours after takeoff from Cape Canaveral, a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts docked to the International Space Station (ISS), marking the second successful trip to the ISS from US soil . since the closure of the space shuttle program in 2011.

Equally important to SpaceX, it marked the company’s first “operational” mission to the ISS with a spacecraft both man-rated and NASA-certified. Indeed, to date, SpaceX has the only commercial space flight system in service that meets these two standards. It’s because SpaceX erased that bar that the mission that took off last weekend was named “Crew-1“even if it was the second SpaceX spacecraft had sent to the space station with astronauts on board.

Overload, under-delivery?

Boeing, which was awarded a contract from NASA to develop a similar spacecraft on a human scale on the same day SpaceX received its contract, has yet to complete without crew test flight of its Starliner spacecraft to the ISS. Its first attempt, which took place almost a year ago, failed to reach the ISS when the Starliner spacecraft’s engines failed to fire at the right time.

Boeing is still planning to make a second unmanned attempt (at a cost of $ 410 million which Boeing itself will pay), followed by a subsequent crewed mission to the ISS, but no firm date has been announced for either event, and space watchers predict it will take months. before an astronaut transported by Boeing sets foot on the ISS.

The first result: with each passing week, Boeing falls further and further behind SpaceX in the corporate space race.

The other result: the longer this goes on, the more Congress will have to question NASA’s decision to pay Boeing $ 4.2 billion to build and fly its Starliner (which has not yet reached the ISS). , while SpaceX only charged $ 2.6 billion (for Crew Dragons who went there twice).

What this means for Boeing

It quickly becomes embarrassing for Boeing, but the greatest danger to investors is this: what if NASA decides (or Congress tells it to decide) that Boeing no longer deserves to be paid a premium for its rocket launches because of their superior reliability?

According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Boeing’s Defense, Space and Security division is currently the most profitable business. at Boeing, posting an operating profit margin of 9.2% on revenue of $ 6.8 billion in the last quarter (compared to a loss of $ 1.4 billion at the Commercial Aircraft division of Boeing ). Granted, that may change now that the FAA has cleared besieged Boeing 737 MAX jets to resume flight. With this clearance in hand, airlines may again be prepared to take delivery of 737 MAXs already on order, or to purchase new ones if and when demand for air travel picks up. (That’s the beauty of running an industrial conglomerate business like Boeing’s. When one division falters, another may be ready to turn around and take over.) Still, investors could be forgiven for wish that Boeing, whose stock fell 45% in the last year, could perhaps start firing all cylinders simultaneously for a change.

And it still could. After all, after several launch delays, Boeing’s rocket launch joint venture with Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance, made finally put its NROL-101 rocket into orbit this week – the company’s 141st successful launch. It must have been a relief for the space company.

And there’s still hope that when Boeing finally makes its next two Starliner attempts, the launches will go off without a hitch.

Meanwhile, across the ocean, a few key Boeing rivals have their own issues. On Tuesday, for the second time in three launches, an Arianespace Vega rocket failed to reach orbit and resulted in a loss of mission. Two days before that – around the time SpaceX’s Crew Dragon was heading into orbit – Russian news agency TASS announced a series of pay cuts and layoffs in Roscosmos, Russia.

The first event may be of little importance to Boeing, which typically does not compete with Ariane in trade missions, while the latter event may seem more related to an anticipated loss of revenue in Roscosmos if NASA stops buying seats. of astronauts on Russian rockets now that SpaceX has proven itself capable of this mission. Still, it looks like Boeing isn’t alone among struggling space companies right now.

But that only makes SpaceX’s star brighter.



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