https://en.sputniknews.africa/20240511/boeing-starliner-spacecraft-failure-deeply-rooted-in-company-nasa-pentagon-histories-1066481142.html
Boeing Starliner Spacecraft Failure Deeply Rooted in Company, NASA, Pentagon Histories
Boeing Starliner Spacecraft Failure Deeply Rooted in Company, NASA, Pentagon Histories
Sputnik Africa
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Boeing's continuing problems with flying its long-delayed Starliner reusable spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) are... 11.05.2024, Sputnik Africa
2024-05-11T09:11+0200
2024-05-11T09:11+0200
2024-05-11T09:11+0200
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Last week, NASA was forced to scrub the long-planned and much-promoted first manned flight of the Starliner spacecraft after a buzzing alert on a rocket valve. The repeatedly delayed launch has now been rescheduled for May 17. The latest in a long series of delays and engineering glitches has its roots in the troubled history of United Launch Alliance (ULA), the hastily cobbled together company that built the motors for Starliner's booster, veteran Defense Department analyst Chuck Spinney said. ULA was created as a joint venture company formed by Boeing Defense and Lockheed Martin Defense in 2006 to build rocket launchers for the Defense Department and NASA, but the two companies are historic rivals with different loyalties and management cultures, Spinney said. Spinney noted that in addition to the intricate technical challenges, the rocket's developers faced bureaucratic hurdles from NASA and the Defense Department, known for their secrecy and changing subcontracting strategies. He added that Boeing's traditional focus on quality engineering was overshadowed by a short-term profit-driven approach. The company had descended the disastrous road of adopting "deindustrializing policies of financialization, managerialization and offshoring of jobs," Spinney added. Financial analyst Alex Krainer attributed Boeing's woes to profit-driven strategies, including layoffs and cost-cutting measures, at the expense of quality. Those cost-cutting moves inevitably have had an adverse impact on the quality of the company’s products, but led to an increase in the stocks and earnings per share, with executives collecting fat bonuses as well as other shareholders for a time, Krainer said. However, in the end, this process ended up destroying systems that took decades of hard, dedicated work to build and refine, Krainer added. Unraveling US Hegemony Amid Industrial DeclineAmerican University in Moscow President and former nuclear physicist Edward Lozansky put Boeing rocket design and other production problems in the context of the unraveling of the US global hegemony and empire. Former merchant banker and economic analyst Martin Hutchinson focused on the multiple layers of government bureaucracy that interfered with and micromanaged every engineering decision in the Starliner and rocket engine production processes. The 1960s to 1972 Apollo space program, which was the last US experience in sending astronauts to the Moon, was a wasteful government boondoggle, 50 years before the United States had the proper technology to do it on a sustainable and lasting, cost-effective basis, Hutchinson advised.
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Boeing Starliner Spacecraft Failure Deeply Rooted in Company, NASA, Pentagon Histories
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Boeing's continuing problems with flying its long-delayed Starliner reusable spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) are deeply rooted in the company's history, the problems of NASA’s bureaucracy and the nature of the Defense Department, US military and industrial analysts told Sputnik.
Last week,
NASA was forced to scrub the long-planned and much-promoted first manned flight of the Starliner spacecraft after a buzzing alert on a rocket valve. The repeatedly delayed launch has now been rescheduled for May 17.
The latest in a long series of delays and engineering glitches has its roots in the troubled history of United Launch Alliance (ULA), the hastily cobbled together company that built the motors for Starliner's booster, veteran Defense Department analyst Chuck Spinney said.
"This rocket motor appears to be a design derivative of the old Atlas ICBM motor, which evolved, with added bells and whistles, from the WWII German V-2 rocket engine," Spinney said.
ULA was created as a joint venture company formed by Boeing Defense and Lockheed Martin Defense in 2006 to build
rocket launchers for the Defense Department and NASA, but the two companies are historic rivals with different loyalties and management cultures, Spinney said.
Spinney noted that in addition to the intricate technical challenges, the rocket's developers faced bureaucratic hurdles from NASA and the Defense Department, known for their
secrecy and changing subcontracting strategies. He added that Boeing's traditional focus on quality engineering was overshadowed by a short-term profit-driven approach.
The company had descended the disastrous road of adopting "deindustrializing policies of financialization, managerialization and offshoring of jobs," Spinney added.
Financial analyst Alex Krainer attributed
Boeing's woes to profit-driven strategies, including layoffs and cost-cutting measures, at the expense of quality.
"Profit-driven systems tend to do well during the 'land-grab' phase - while they're in expansion and providing quality goods and services is the way to grab market share and loyal customers," Krainer said.
Those cost-cutting moves inevitably have had an adverse impact on the quality of the company’s products, but led to an increase in the stocks and earnings per share, with executives collecting fat bonuses as well as other shareholders for a time, Krainer said.
However, in the end, this process ended up destroying systems that took decades of hard, dedicated work to build and refine, Krainer added.
Unraveling US Hegemony Amid Industrial Decline
American University in Moscow President and former nuclear physicist Edward Lozansky put Boeing rocket design and other production problems in the context of the unraveling of the US global hegemony and empire.
"When the Empire starts claiming the unachievable role of global hegemony, some things begin to fall apart. ... Boeing, being one of the Empire's most important mechanisms, shares the pain," Lozansky said.
Former merchant banker and economic analyst Martin Hutchinson focused on the multiple layers of
government bureaucracy that interfered with and micromanaged every engineering decision in the Starliner and rocket engine production processes.
"NASA is a useless government bureaucracy that has achieved absolutely nothing useful since 1972. Leave space to the true private sector, who will go there when the market leads them to it," said.
The 1960s to 1972 Apollo space program, which was the last US experience in sending astronauts to the
Moon, was a wasteful government boondoggle, 50 years before the United States had the proper technology to do it on a sustainable and lasting, cost-effective basis, Hutchinson advised.
