Time for Boeing to Shape UP ?!

NASA is now reporting that Boeing may not be able to meet the scheduled Orion capsule launch in 2020 and NASA might consider to launch the capsule on a commercial vehicle. Is it time to let Boeing go or for the company to shape up?

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/ne...ine-NASA-considering-13685009.php?src=hp_totn

The whole SLS thing just makes me shake my head. Why would they insist on "reusing" the space shuttle main engines as well as the solid rocket boosters in order to "save money", and then build all new ones anyway? IIRC the boosters on the SLS aren't the same as were used on the shuttle stack, they're bigger and had to be engineered all over again anyway.

They had a GREAT opportunity to use F-1B engines but instead allowed politics to steer the selection of "reused" shuttle parts... and now it's not going to work anyway.

Dang it!!

Is there some inherent performance requirement that kept the shuttle engines and boosters from being used?

This who thing kinda reminds me of the Apollo 8 story. Apollo 8 was supposed to test the LEM, but it wasn't ready, and wouldn't be for a while. So instead they created a new mission to send Apollo 8 around the moon without the lander. Sounds kinda familiar......

Bob Austin said:

This who thing kinda reminds me of the Apollo 8 story. Apollo 8 was supposed to test the LEM, but it wasn't ready, and wouldn't be for a while. So instead they created a new mission to send Apollo 8 around the moon without the lander. Sounds kinda familiar......

Click to expand...

It's true the LM wasn't ready for a December 68 launch, but essentially what they did was flip the flight profiles of Apollo 8 and Apollo 9.

And it was a not incidental consideration that one of the two presidential candidates was Nixon, who was hell bent to eradicate the legacy of Kennedy, his arch nemesis, and who would have been perfectly thrilled to pull the plug on Apollo completely the day he took office.

The spectacular success of Apollo 8 in December, demonstrating the moon landing was within possibility, made it politically impossible for Nixon to deep six Apollo.

I think Boeing is a lot more worried about the 737 situation right now.