The Motley Fool by Rich Smith 11/27/2020
Can Boeing ever catch up?The current score: SpaceX 2, Boeing (NYSE:BA)0.
At 11:01 p.m. EST on Nov. 17, approximately 27 hours after lifting off from Cape Canaveral, a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts docked with the International Space Station (ISS), marking the second successful trip to the ISS from U.S. soil since the Space Shuttle program closed down in 2011.
Just as important to SpaceX, it marked the company's first "operational" mission to ISS with a spacecraft that's both human-rated and NASA-certified. Indeed, as of today, SpaceX has the only commercial spaceflight system in operation that meets these two standards. It's because SpaceX has cleared this bar that the mission that took flight last weekend was designated "Crew-1" even though it was the second spacecraft SpaceX had sent to the space station with astronauts on board.
Overcharge, underdeliver?Boeing, which was awarded a NASA contract to develop a similar human-rated spacecraft on the same day SpaceX received its contract, has yet to conduct even a successful unmanned test flight of its Starliner spacecraft to ISS. Its first attempt, which took place nearly a year ago, failed to reach ISS when the Starliner spacecraft's engines did not fire at the correct time.
Boeing still plans to make a second unmanned attempt (at a $410 million cost that Boeing itself will pay), followed by a later crewed mission to ISS, but no firm dates have been announced for either event, and space watchers predict it will be months before a Boeing-carried astronaut sets foot on ISS.
More:
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/11/27/spacex-rockets-ahead-of-boeing-with-crew-1-launch/
