NASA And Boeing’s Failure Reminds Us What’s At Stake In 2024

After so many months of dithering, fumbling, and excuse-making, NASA finally announced it has a plan to bring back stranded astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore — next year. The two astronauts were originally supposed to return to Earth in mid-June, but because their spacecraft, Boeing’s new shuttle Starliner, experienced a malfunction, they are scheduled to return on the SpaceX Dragon in February.

Understandably, NASA has downplayed the embarrassing fact that the eight-day mission has expanded into more than eight months. They have also downplayed the other embarrassing fact that the aerospace juggernaut Boeing, which was awarded $1.6 billion more than SpaceX in their fixed-price contracts, utterly failed to produce a comparable product to Elon Musk’s much smaller upstart company. 

Instead of hanging their heads in shame, NASA officials (Boeing’s officials were notably absent) kept a positive attitude at a recent press conference, proclaiming their commitment to safety. As NASA Administrator Bill Nelson stated, “A test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine. [Our decision] is a result of a commitment to safety.” Assistant NASA Administrator Ken Bowersox echoed this sentiment, adding, “Decisions like this are never easy, but I want to commend our NASA and Boeing teams for their thorough analysis, transparent discussions, and focus on safety during the Crew Flight Test.”

For their part, the astronauts have been unusually chipper about the whole debacle. In a news conference last month, both astronauts seemed unfazed by the delay and expressed confidence in their team. Then again, seeing that the alternative is dying a fiery death in a rickety ship that lacks enough helium in its thrusters to land it upright, it’s not like they have much choice except to be hopeful. 

By framing this issue in terms of safety and astronaut morale, it’s clear that the people involved are trying to hide the fact that this mission was a massive failure. SpaceX has had working space capsules for four years now and is about to launch its next generation of spaceships while Boeing can’t even run a basic maintenance roundtrip to the International Space Station. Nevertheless, Nelson made sure to thank Boeing for its incompetence: “I’m grateful to both the NASA and Boeing teams for all their incredible and detailed work.”

Tellingly, no thanks was given to SpaceX for actually being able to come through and save NASA’s astronauts. Even though Musk’s company is currently “reconfiguring seats on the Crew-9 Dragon, and adjusting the manifest to carry additional cargo, personal effects, and Dragon-specific spacesuits for Wilmore and Williams,” Nelson continues to put his faith in Boeing’s clunker, saying he is “100 percent” certain Starliner will again fly.

That said, the biggest question remains unanswered: Why is NASA waiting until February to save the two astronauts? Could it be that there is an election happening this November and this news helps a certain candidate who’s supported by the owner of SpaceX and hurts a certain candidate who has lavished praise on NASA in the past and currently leads the administration funding this nonsense?

At the moment, there are three non-cargo space capsules docked at the ISS, none of which can take Butch and Suni home. First, there’s the Starliner, which will return unmanned. Then there’s the SpaceX Dragon, which has been parked there since March. Its four-person crew is scheduled to return in September but lacks the space for two extra astronauts. The third is a Russian space capsule, which is also not big enough for two more passengers and happens to belong to a current geopolitical adversary of the U.S. 

But none of this should prevent NASA from using SpaceX to send another ship to pick up Butch and Suni much sooner — an option to which NASA gave “no serious consideration,” according to the AP.

True, one could give NASA and Boeing the benefit of the doubt, but these organizations don’t deserve it. Occam’s razor (the simplest explanation is usually the right one) suggests this was all about saving face. They can spin this as some routine protocol, that the astronauts wanted to stay eight extra months to run tests and finish a few thousand Sudoku puzzles, and that all this is valuable information for future launches, but the truth is that these organizations failed big and need to be reformed.

Try as they might to cover up this fact, such reform is on the ballot this November. As a new space race is emerging with China to colonize the moon, the American space program is no longer a nationalist vanity project but a serious matter of strategic interest. American taxpayers can no longer indulge failed government agencies like NASA and failed crony corporations like Boeing. They deserve more for their money, and that starts with bringing the astronauts back home on time. 

Auguste Meyrat is an English teacher in the Dallas area. He holds an MA in humanities and an MEd in educational leadership. He is the senior editor of The Everyman , a senior contributor to The Federalist, and has written for essays for The American Mind, The American Conservative, Religion and Liberty, Crisis Magazine, and elsewhere. Follow him on X.