SpaceX to the Rescue

[Music] this is Twi Elon Musk is the hero Iron Man is back so it's a tragic a tragic tale of two astronauts uh off on an 8-day cruise to the International Space Station on a fine Boeing uh vehicle who uh found out that the Boeing vehicle uh had some Thruster issues NASA said ah yayay yay we don't can and they there's they've been stuck there they've been stuck there Sita Williams and Barry Butch Wilmore have been unable to get home because the Starliner is unreliable NASA thought about it thought about it and and finally on Friday they announced what they're going to do they've been in space for two months a little longer than the eight days they're they're rationing clothing at this point there's plenty of food they don't have to worry about air I mean you know but they they didn't you know bring I think they told their family we'll be home next week so NASA has announced that they are not going to let the Boeing Starliner bring them back they're going to return it to Earth uncrewed just in case because if this Thruster thing doesn't work uh it could be disastrous right that's how they get back into the atmosphere and through it uh they've announced that SpaceX is now got the contract and in February a SpaceX uh flight will come to the space station and take the two home the way spacex's uh dragon Works they I think they have four seats so maybe they'll on that flight and that mission send up two astronauts and then come back with four uh just another black mark for Bowen Sam yeah they um they can't seem to get anything right lately uhz Lou ever ever since they merged with McDonald Douglas in 1997 it has been just a steady downhill stream for bowling uh because the the management there has been more focused on on the financials than on actually producing good products and you know really you know you bowling used to be known as a great engineering company and for the last 25 years it's just been a complete mess um you know every every program every new aircraft program they've done um whether it's civilian or U military or space has just been a catastrophe and you know from the the 787 uh to the the trip 7x the 737 Max um the KC 46 tanker for the military everything's been completely screwed up and they bowling just announced a new CEO a couple of weeks ago uh they brought in um former executive from U uh is it uh right not not Ron um oh I forget it's it's a company that makes avionic systems for aircraft and uh he just started last week you know it's going to take a while to really get Boeing's organization and culture back on track that's not something you turn around overnight I mean this is this is a problem that was 25 years into making and it's probably going to take years to sort out what's gone wrong at Boeing Kelly ortberg will be taking over he's from Rockwell Collins yeah he's yeah he started last week and um you know the Starliner has just been plagued with problems uh long before they had its first launch uh they've had all kinds of hardware issues software issues with that capsule um the first they the original plan was they were going to do an an uncrewed flight uh into orbit and then do a crude flight into orbit well the first uncrewed flight had so many issues that they had to do they they spent two years working on it and had to do another uncrewed flight before they would allow astronauts on it and then that one still had a bunch of issues but they thought they had it all you know under control and now you know this time you know it launched okay but then once they got up into space they discovered leaks and issues with these with these thrusters that help with maneuvering and as you said you know those those maneuvering thrusters if they're not working when a spacecraft comes down comes back into the atmosphere it has to be in exactly the right orientation or it burns up yeah and you know so they cannot skips on the atmosphere and heads out into deep space yeah so they can't really badly they can't afford to mess that one up so it it makes sense that they're going to bring back those two astronauts on a crew Dragon instead yeah you kind of you know it must have been a tough decision for NASA it's especially tough because NASA really had hoped to have at least two companies working on this Boeing and uh SpaceX and Boeing has just F failed at this point it they are so relying on Elon and this is something that you know I'm kind of dealing with this myself you know I have uh up here in the studio we're on Comcast business and it's been acting funny it dropped out a couple of times last week so we ordered um what else I had no other choice I was it was either DSL from AT&T that wasn't going to do it or and we got one uh from uh from SpaceX a uh you know starlink and I feel I feel kind of I feel kind of dirty I mean look at least at least people are going to potentially be getting home safe right like that that's the more important thing well that's important yeah but but but the real concern of the US government is how Reliant we are on on on a guy who really seems somewhat unstable yeah but I mean at the same point to I think to Sam's Point like this is 25 years in the making for Boeing where they've made mistake after mistake after mistake no they earned it you know right and and and I you have to wonder it's like okay well as the government like why have you I do have questions about them and about NASA why have they not been more exacting why they not demanded more from their suppliers well as I said I think nobody wants to have a single Source right right especially a source that is maybe as unpredictable as Elon there's a article about Elon and starlink you know the Ukrainian military was using starlink but Elon PR forbade them blocked them from using it uh in in a in a mission uh that they wanted to do because he thought it was ah you're going to it's not good we don't want to cause a nuclear war so I'm not going to let you use it uh he's making foreign policy decisions in effect because he controls starlink and he's I mean I don't think anybody would deny a little unpredictable I don't know what his priorities are anyway thank goodness he's there to you know what I shouldn't knock it right because he's going to save these uh these two astronauts thank goodness he has a A system that works one of the reasons they wanted Boeing according to the Atlantic is that uh spacex's bid seemed impossibly low and uh they thought well we can we trust this guy well well I mean both of them had cost overruns but it turned out that they could trust SpaceX and and they can't trust Boeing um right now according to the Atlantic mus NASA has no other reliable way to send people to space from us soil they used to use Russian uh Vehicles obviously they're not going to do that anymore right and and and with Boeing's flop no Prospect of a second option for potentially years to come you know what one of the issues is that you know I mean the problems with the Boeing Starliner have been so long been going on so long that NASA really should have gotten another supplier going years ago right you know it was clear that Boeing was not going to be able to get the get its problems sorted out this quickly or or you know that in in any kind of reasonable time frame and they should have had a third Source yeah they can't quit space who would be the compet like would would are you looking at like blue origin or something like that thinking that they might or say what about the European Space Agency they they don't have a uh a crude uh vehicle that they can send up they have rockets that they can use to launch satellites they do not have a crude vehicle um and right now there there isn't you know blue origin is so far behind schedule as well blue origin was supposed to be uh launching or they were supposed to be supplying their engines their rocket engines to UL La uh which is the joint venture between locked Martin and uh and Boeing um that was the other company that was launching satellites uh for the US Military and um you know the Ula had been for years been using actually Russian Rocket motors on their launch vehicles and that that's no longer an option you know they can't get those anymore I think they just launched their last rocket uh their their last couple of uh those Russian Rocket motors and they had been planning to use the blue origin Rocket Motors but blue origin is years behind schedule as well yeah do you think there's going to be do you think I mean there are so many space startups now um people have you know SpaceX has there's like a bit of a SpaceX Mafia you know diaspora of of entrepreneurs now do you think that it'll just take time and eventually there will be sort of a competitive private space Market it can't take too long the ISS is going to be deorbited in 2030 in five years yeah so uh I think Elon I think elon's got this one I think SpaceX is probably going to be fully responsible for uh sending uh astronauts to the ISS for the United States but you're right I mean if we want to continue space exploration it feels like we should we should get some competing bids yeah I do have kind of a a pseudo related kind of query for for you all as a as as you know American tech companies go which one is is the bigger kind of embarrassment or or you know kind of failure is it Intel is it Boeing oh yeah yay I would say it's Boeing you know Intel's problems you know as as big as they are um generally don't haven't killed people yet oh oh fair enough I I just mean I think in terms of just like the the enormity of like where we've seen like these great institutions just yeah really become fall apart but yeah I mean I think you make a good case for for Boeing they definitely cost people's lives so that's yeah you know like I said I'm kind of in the microcosm of the same problem which is I don't you know and this is true in everywhere in America you don't have many options for high-speed internet in many cases just one as in my case and it's a cable company so um thank goodness that starlink exists I guess um I uh I think my my observation my Elon observation is just that it's it's so remarkable you know just his personality and the things that he's decided to to go and say how much that has affected him I mean if you look at Twitter had he decided not to go and and say all these you know pretty terrible things um right after he bought the compy Iron Man it would be the the the amount like it would be one of the great business turnarounds in history right I mean he just got rid of most of the staff and had he not shot himself in the foot with advertising and then here you've got the situation where I mean it seems like you know basically you know a government agency saying we will literally take like Boeing not knowing if they can get the job done because we don't want to work with this Elon guy um or we'll do everything we can to to to avoid having to work with them on this and then you talk about like Broadband I mean they're not working with with starlink I mean they say it's because the the equipment's too expensive right for these for these like rural Broadband programs but I mean it's clearly it's just clearly because you know scar on right I mean I it's just amazing how like despite the fact that he's that he has these you know that feels the need to kind of like say the most crazy things publicly he's still able to you know be so this related a little bit to Pavel dur flying into Paris right it's like these guys um it's hubris is the word you used right Christina it's uh they um they think they're Untouchable Elon clearly and and you know what maybe he could make a case that the reason he's so successful is because he's an iconic class because he's willing to do things and say things that no one else will do or say that he is that he breaks the mold maybe that's the secret of his success so who are we to say yeah but you're weird hey thank you for watching this little snippet from our big show the news Roundtable This Week in Tech I'm Leo leaport each week we cover the week's Tech news in-depth analysis but it's also fun and engaging you'll find it at twit.tv along with all of our shows and if you want more just hit the Subscribe button and uh we'll be sure to bring you a lot more great content thanks for listening