Boeing can’t catch a break. Regulators twice grounded the company’s workhorse 737 Max airliner following two horrific accidents in 2018 and 2019. Over the next few years, whistleblowers blew whistles and investigators uncovered a host of sketchy business practices relating to aircraft safety. When an improperly sealed plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max earlier this year, more problems came to light, including alarmingly sloppy manufacturing practices. Not surprisingly, international orders for Boeing aircraft have plunged, as has the company’s stock price. The business press now uses words like “beleaguered” and “besieged”—the language of medieval warfare—to describe the embattled giant.
And then came Starliner. During the worst of the 737 Max debacle, Boeing could still take pride in its legacy as America’s—indeed, the world’s—most storied aerospace manufacturer. After all, Boeing constructed the rocket that carried Apollo astronauts to the moon and built most of the International Space Station (ISS). But today, NASA is taking a new approach: The agency wants to outsource routine space flight to private businesses. Under its Commercial Crew program, NASA will pay companies a set fee to launch astronauts into orbit on their own space vehicles (assuming these spacecraft meet the agency’s safety standards).
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James B. Meigs is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a City Journal contributing editor.
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