Against Boeing, for yet another space program…
Mismanagement and inexperience on the part of Boeing are creating severe delays and expenditures for NASA’s efforts to return Americans to the moon, according to a new report from the agency’s office of the inspector general (OIG).
The 38-page document, released Wednesday, paints the manufacturer’s quality control practices as inadequate and its workforce as insufficiently trained, blaming it for cost increases and schedule delays in the development of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1B. Yet the space agency has neglected to punish Boeing financially for these flaws, arguing that doing so would run contrary to the terms of its contract.
Full article, HERE from Flying Mag h/t Stretch
How many more of these can Boeing stand before NASA kicks them to the curb???
The mind boggles…
Given Boeing is thoroughly tied to the Establishment, the number is probably quite high. It isn’t like competence is a major factor in the decision making.
Evidence you are correct: US Air Force reaches price agreement for E-7A rapid prototype program with Boeing, total contract value of $2,560,846,860.
https://is.gd/fjZows
( Link goes to http://www.af.mil )
NASA must send Inspectors to check on the units Boing is manufacturing. When I was younger and worked in a manufaturing plant working on parts for the US Navy they had to be exactly to specs. The Navy Inspectors that came to the plant to check on the manufactured parts were the very best and very particular on what was to be manufactured. NASA should have such dedicated Inspectors as the US Navy had back then.
Boeing isn’t the only group hiring day laborers they found hanging around in front of Home depot to weld sophisticated machinery and run cabling. It’s by no means a new practice, either.
Sad to see a once great company devolve into garbage.
How many more of these can Boeing stand before NASA kicks them to the curb???
For who I might ask? Rebid a program with changes and finding qualified personal would add years to the delay. Lockheed Martin or Grumman might not even want to touch this tar baby.
Congress mandates that Boeing be used for the SLS. When some Senator recently asked the NASA rep why they were wasting billion$ on Boeing, he replied, “Because you told us to.” No further questions.
All- Good points, and Gerry, NO idea!
The only people who can stop or fix SLS are Congresscritters.
NASA can only advise as to what Congress puts into LAW. Said laws state that SLS will be the big thing for NASA.
And how much, exactly, of the price of SLS is grift back to the very congresscritters who voted to select and keep selecting the SLS turd system? You know, the same congresscritters that are immune to an SEC investigation into insider trading (but people who follow the aforementioned congresscritters’s stock trading have been investigated for insider trading…)
Yeah, not going to happen.
Most of the missions that are called for to use the SLS can be replaced by Falcon Heavy. It may require 2-3 Falcon Heavy launches. But you can launch 12-20 FHs for the price of one Block 1 SLS. And the FHs are ready almost immediately.
SLS = Senate Launch System
‘Cause the alternative is Elon Musk and SpaceX.
Can’t have that!
Beans and Mike W. have it pegged between them. They way out is to take SLS outback and put it down like the mad dog it is. But Congress has intentionally tied SLS to distributors and companies ALL over the US. This means everybody gets a little and maybe sometime in the 2030’s we touch the moon again (though I’d rather not put money on it). The obvious answer is to throw SLS away and hand half of the yearly SLS money(13 billion of 26 billion) to SpaceX and untie their hands concerning Starship launches and development. I’d bet within 2.5 years you have manned Starship runs around the moon and by the end of the decade (to steal a phrase from some idiot) we have a moon landing moving towards long term base(s).
But that will never happen. Why? Two reasons 1) because with SpaceX moving to Texas all that money either flows into Boca Chica or Cape Canaveral environs. So the gravy train to the other 48 states thins out considerably. 2) Currently Musk is out of favor with all but the most free market parts of Congress and the deep state inside NASA and the FAA despises him because he shows their incompetence and sloth. They seem to really hate him with a burning passion.
Just an observation:
Boeing’s decline started when McDonnel-Douglas bought them. They kept the name because the Boeing name is (was) worth more than the McDonnell-Douglass name, but it was still a purchase, not a merger like everyone thinks.
A sign of the decline was moving corporate headquarters to Chicago, because it was a Good Thing to move HQ away from the manufacturing line of business.
And it’s been downhill ever since.
Then the bean counter’s get rid of “duplicate” jobs, the experienced, white, male, engineers, machinists, assemblers and QA with morals and ethics, etc, because they cost too much and hold up production with some bull shit about “Quality, Job 1!”. Then pay the down sized, inexperienced, toadies and DEI’s lot’s less money. Bingo! You have lots more money for stock holder’s, management and stock buy-back option’s. WIN! WIN! What could possibly go wrong?!? Hrrmmf, that had a whiff of cynicism…
Hope the salty language didn’t trip the Meter.
The results of blatant work DEI writ large for all to see. Boeing is deliberately committing corporate suicide.
None of us would want to ride the Boeing product. Maybe if the Boeing CEO and CFO rode the next Boeing capsule, more attention would be paid to quality and less to equity?
Boeing was once one of the premier engineering-driven companies in the world. It’s achievements in rolling out the legendary B-52, the 707, and the 747 are unmatched in aviation history. It is sad to see what has happened to it since the McDonald-Douglas bean counters won the internal corporate wars after the merger.
“Boeing is deliberately committing corporate suicide.”
Most all corporations do this. They lasted much longer than is typical. Most of them self-destruct due to internal squabbles over office politics here in the US.
There’s a Sci-Fi short story about the end of the world (typical) featuring DEAD ASTRONAUTS in orbit. Not so typical, but on point, eh?