SpaceX vs. Boeing

Entrepreneurs vs. Bureaucrats

Wall Street Silver notes:

In 2014 NASA awarded contracts to two companies to build spacecraft capable of bringing astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station. SpaceX received $2.6 billion, launched first mission in 2020 and has done 13 crew missions with 49 astronauts so far. Boeing received $4.2 billion, first mission 2024 and stranded at the space station with leaks. Likely a total loss and the astronauts will be need to be rescued by SpaceX. Even worse, the software on Starliner cannot handle an automated undocking, possibly resulting in Starliner being permanently blocking one of two ports needed for other capsules to arrive.

The cost per astronaut for SpaceX has been $53,061,224. So far Boeing has spent 79 times more without recovering a single astronaut. Ouch for the U.S. taxpayers.

SpaceX has also the leader in reducing the cost of putting things into orbit. The costs have fallen by 95 percent since 2010. Now you can put 20 tons in space for the price of one. OurWorldinData reports the cost difference between the Space Shuttle and Falcon Heavy at $64,800 per kilogram versus $1,500 per kilogram. This is a 97.7 percent drop. You get 43.2 tons on Falcon Heavy for the price of one ton on the Space Shuttle.

If you are an aspiring aeronautical engineer, or just a project manager, who would you rather work for: Boeing or SpaceX? Better question: If you’re an astronaut needing a ride home, who are you going to call, SpaceX or Boeing? The future is between entrepreneurs or bureaucrats. Chose wisely.

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Gale Pooley is a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute and a board member at Human Progress.