Insight: Boeing has lost its competitiveness in space race

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft program, which has still not made it to the International Space Station and returned safely to enable flights with manned crews, appears to be falling farther behind schedule, its primary competitor, Elon Musk’s Space X. Boeing has lost its competitiveness after numerous delays while its competition is successfully completing missions.

The Boeing Starliner was supposed to launch on August 3rd when the mission was scrubbed due to 13 valves in the propulsion system that failed to open during a preflight test. Over the weekend, Boeing engineers were able to open 7 valves. The Boeing Company is still hopeful that it can complete the test flight before month-end, but that now appears unlikely as Boeing still does not know the root cause of the problem.