Quietly, the new space race between SpaceX and Boeing burns hot
Quietly, the new space race between SpaceX and Boeing burns hot

          
          
Boeing, meanwhile, must adjust to a new way of doing business as it develops the Starliner spacecraft. During its half century as one of NASA’s main contractors, the company has worked on a cost-plus contracting basis, essentially meaning Boeing got paid for all of its costs related to work on a job, plus an additional payment. Such contracts do not place a premium on speed or efficiency.
However, NASA has since shifted to offering fixed-price contracts for its commercial crew program. In these arrangements, the payment is the same regardless of a company’s time or expenses. According to Mulholland, the fixed-price environment has forced Boeing to “work with pace,” and he added that it will be “incredibly challenging” to finish the Starliner spacecraft in two years.
The companies are now in the final phase of NASA’s commercial crew program. In September 2014, Boeing won a $4.2 billion award to provide crewed launch services, and SpaceX won $2.6 billion. (SpaceX received less because it offered to provide lower-cost flights). Both firms are now in the process of completing more than a dozen “milestones,” such as spacesuits and parachute qualification tests as well as the actual flight tests, before NASA certifies their vehicles as ready to fly.
    
              
                
              
                Each company has a litany of milestones to complete before NASA certifies them to fly crew.
                                  
                    Credit:
                                          NASA Advisory Council
                                      
                              
            
                  
          
    
    
      Each company has a litany of milestones to complete before NASA certifies them to fly crew.

              
          Credit:

          
          NASA Advisory Council

                  
          
  
        
            

Publicly, neither company will acknowledge the space race. But make no mistake, both companies want to win, and badly. A few years ago, Boeing and other major aerospace companies viewed SpaceX as something of a joke. Then the company started flying and winning NASA contracts, and now SpaceX presents a major threat to the old-guard aerospace titans. Additionally, there is no small measure of resentment at the company's celebrity chief executive, Elon Musk.
Musk, of course, loves to make a splash. America for four years has relied on Russia to launch its astronauts into space. Last year Russia’s chief space minister, Dmitry Rogozin, taunted NASA by saying it could use a trampoline to launch its astronauts into space if Washington DC didn’t like what his country was doing in Ukraine. Now in less than two years, Musk has a chance to have his spacecraft, with the SpaceX logo right next to the American flag, reclaim America’s spaceflight heritage.
The chance to rescue NASA from its Russian reliance offers a public relations prize beyond compare for an aerospace company. As such, the race is on.


          
                  