Once a major player in space, Boeing has suffered a series of setbacks, failures and legal challenges in recent years that have eroded its dominance of the space industry. The company’s space arm has been outgunned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and comes as other companies advance ambitious plans, from sending astronauts to the International Space Station to returning humans to the lunar surface. Watch.
Boeing will try to salvage its reputation on Friday during an uncrewed test of its Starliner capsule to the International Space Station. This will be the capsule’s second launch, a year and a half after its first attempt failed to reach the space station. After 18 months of painstaking technical investigations and a series of leadership shake-ups, Boeing is spending $410 million to return to the launch pad with its first crewed launch expected later this year. SpaceX is Boeing’s competitor in NASA’s commercial manned program and is far ahead, having completed three astronaut missions.
