Boeing and SpaceX had a big week

The Boeing Starliner fulfilled a longtime NASA dream when Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams stepped out of the capsule on the ISS. Yes, the docking process got a little complicated, but the company and the agency managed to reach the space station despite more helium leaks and some nasty thrusters. Launches can attract attention, but I know that most involved in the Starliner program felt relieved only after the “contact and capture” call confirmed the spacecraft’s arrival.

As the Starliner neared its milestone, the SpaceX starship thundered off the pad for the fourth time. Each of these monster rocket test flights went further than the previous ones, but this one was the first to cover such a distance. Starship ticked the more important development boxes – all while putting on a show with an ugly ending, with a cracked camera peering through the soot at the little flap that could.

Star-things’ converging milestones bring up a question I’ve been asked more than a few times: What’s the difference between Boeing and SpaceX?

I usually get this question when comparing the Starliner to SpaceX’s Dragon, now a veteran of human spaceflight, or the latter company’s dominant collection in winning government contracts for launches, exploration missions and more.

Look, I have zero tolerance for mistakes (to borrow the words of NASA’s CAPCOM yesterday about ISS safety policies) for messing up the stakes of the Starliner crew and the fourth starship test. The simple reality is that one was carrying the precious cargo of two souls and the other is hundreds of starts away from dealing with it.

But one aspect of flights reveals a difference in how companies approach space: visuals.

Starliner had the classic space coast launch views for a few minutes… and then just a few animations with telemetry data overlays. For the next 25 hours, we didn’t see Butch or Suni, nor did we witness the view from the Starliner’s path. Why? Apparently, this was not a contractual requirement beyond “critical phases of the mission” and Boeing does not expect to add the feature “for a few flights.”

The starship’s launch, on the other hand, was cinematic, providing almost continuous live footage of the deck from dozens of angles during the flight. Millions have now seen Raptors rockets crackle on takeoff behind the sunrise, boosters slide back through the atmosphere, Earth whiz by below, rainbow plasma on reentry, and the flapper doing his best Terminator 2 impression.

The difference in the visuals of spaceflight runs counter to the ethos of what SpaceX is doing versus Boeing: SpaceX is selling the future while Boeing is fulfilling the deal.

Public interest, as measured by the imperfect metric of viral social media posts, also shows this difference. While my recent vehicle coverage is 10 to 1 in favor of the Starliner, I couldn’t open Instagram, TikTok, X, Reddit, or even LinkedIn yesterday without seeing the Starship. The few Starliner posts I’ve seen have come from official NASA accounts or industry folks celebrating the milestone.

For someone who follows the industry closely like myself, it’s not clear how stunning an achievement it is for Boeing to safely fly astronauts to the space station. After all, in the grand scheme of American human spaceflight history, the Starliner is only the sixth U.S.-built vehicle to carry astronauts into orbit.

But Boeing’s success was met with a shrug from the public, while Starship caught the eye. Part of the difference with someone who works in a TV newsroom is an appreciation of the power of stunning live display.

• NASA rejects private proposal to revive aging Hubble: SpaceX, along with billionaire astronaut Jared Isaacman, signed an agreement with the agency for the study in September 2022. Despite Hubble continuing to suffer from faulty gyroscopes and moving into a more limited operating mode, the official said the agency is concerned about “potential risks such as premature loss of science and some technological challenges.” – SpaceNews
• China’s return mission to the Moon on its way back to Earth: The Chang’e 6 spacecraft collected samples, unfurled the Chinese flag on the far side of the moon, then lifted off from the surface and is expected to land on June 25. – The Guardian
• Russian cosmonaut has reached a total of 1000 days in space: Oleg Kononenko, currently on his fifth space flight, has set a new cumulative spacetime record for any person. – AP
• Axiom shows progress on lunar spacesuits: The company said it has completed testing at SpaceX headquarters on how the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU) will be used with parts of the starship. – Axiom
• Inspector General Audit Finds NASA Too Heavy on Commercial Lunar Cargo Program also known as CLPS. The audit found that “increasingly risk-averse practices and policies” “resulted in higher costs and delayed delivery schedules.” – NASA OIG
• Slingshot Launches AI Satellite Tracking Tool with DARPA, says an artificial intelligence system called Agatha will be able to identify “anomalous spacecraft in large constellations of satellites.” – Slingshot Aerospace
• SES a Planet perform a data transfer demo for NASA, in what the companies claim is the first commercial method of transmitting data between satellites in multiple orbits. The companies performed a demo for NASA as the agency seeks a privately developed replacement for the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). – Via satellite
• RocketLab Electron completes NASA PREFIRE launches, with the pair of missions launching within 11 days of each other. PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) are climate-focused satellites that will measure heat lost to space from Earth’s polar regions. – Rocket Lab
• Mega satellite startup K2 is testing a thruster, a krypton-powered Hall-effect jet engine that the company claims will use 20 kilowatts of energy, four times the power of any known Hall-effect jet yet flown. The company is preparing for its first satellite launch later this year. – SpaceNews
• FAA supplies Virgin Galactic and Sierra Space to its live flight data tracker, with the companies joining SpaceX as part of the Space Data Integrator (SDI) regulator. The tool allows the FAA to more quickly reopen airspace after a spacecraft launches or returns. – FAA

• Lockheed orders $375 million worth of rocket launches from Firefly, which will buy 25 Alpha rockets for launches until 2029, including the first mission later this year. Firefly did not disclose the value of the contract, but is advertising Alpha for $15 million per launch. – Firefly
• Iridium won the Space Force contract for $94 million: The five-year deal will allow Iridium to use its Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services (EMSS) to support “critical US government applications.” – Iridium
• Black sky adds a $7 million contract extension from an unnamed international government customer, while the length of the deal was also not disclosed. – Black sky

• Aster retire soon to privacy with the company filing an update on its merger process and the background of how it ended up in that position. The company also announced that it is moving its satellite propulsion manufacturing plant to consolidate at its headquarters in Alameda, California. – Astra / SpaceNews

• Sir Peter Beck knighted in New Zealand, with the country naming the CEO of Rocket Lab as a “Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the aerospace industry”. – Crux
• Jonathan Lunine has been named Principal Scientist at NASA’s JPL, who joins the agency from Cornell University. – NASA
• Karlton Johnson named CEO of National Space Society, joining the organization alongside his role as CEO of Delaine, a consultancy group. Johnson will take over the NSS helm from previous CEO Anita Gale, who recently died unexpectedly. – NSS

• June 7: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launches Starlink satellites from Florida.
• June 8: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launches Starlink satellites from California.
• June 8: Virgin Galactic’s Unity launches mission Galactic-07 from New Mexico.
• June 12: SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launches Starlink satellites from Florida.
• June 13: NASA spacewalk on the ISS.