Is it time for the old farts to retire and let the young kids take over?

[Thumper]

WTF is going on with Boeing??? I remember something like 10 years ago, NASA announced they were going to let Boeing and the "new kid on the block", SpaceX, compete to design the next generation of space vehicles. Crap, Boeing has been a contractor for NASA for a bazillion years, they're not newcomers to the space program. It's looking like, nowadays, they can't even build a reliable commercial airliner much less a space vehicle! After a bazillion set-backs and being years behind, as well as a BILLION $$$ over budget, Boeing FINALLY got their Starliner off the ground, while SpaceX has been flying theirs since 2020 and actually surpassed the number of launches (as of May 2024) accomplished by NASA during the complete history of their Shuttle program.

Well, guess what? Now that Boeing finally got the Starliner off the ground, they have a couple of astronauts stuck on the ISS until they can figure out what went wrong with their Starliner on the trip up. You know, little things like helium leaks and thrusters that abruptly stopped working. The astronauts were supposed to spend a week on the ISS, but it's now been two weeks and will most likely be at least three .... that is IF Boeing can get the bugs worked out before Starliner can bring the crew back to earth. To add insult to injury, there's already talk about the possibility SpaceX might have to send their Crew Dragon to the ISS to retrieve the astronauts. If Boeing isn't already embarrassed enough with their commercial airliner division headaches and now this fiasco, I don't know what could be worse.

Note: After I wrote the above, I decided to Google the Starliner history to double check my memory. I found this tid-bit ... ummm .... "interesting".

"On 16 September 2014, NASA announced that SpaceX and Boeing had been selected to provide crew transportation to the ISS. SpaceX's Dragon was the less expensive proposal, but NASA's William H. Gerstenmaier considered the Boeing Starliner proposal the stronger of the two. However, Crew Dragon's first operational flight, SpaceX Crew-1, was on 16 November 2020 after several test flights, while Boeing's Starliner suffered multiple problems and delays."

I think that goofball Trump's "Drain the Swamp" campaign could maybe apply to Boeing. Maybe they've been in the government contract business too long and have become part of the swamp. I don't know what's going on, but sumpin' ain't right with that company.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Michael Crichton’s ‘Airframe’ might havebeen the most prophetic novel about aircraft manufacturing ever.

Boeing’s problem is the same as many big corporations have. They began caving in to shareholder demands for ever improving margins. Thankfully, in most businessesthey don’t crash to the ground, they just implode from horrible service.

Boeing needs to die. The process is broken.

[Hombre]

The thing about shareholder demands is we are such a society of instant gratification. A CEO today who's making decisions for the longterm (5 years out) and not Qtr over Qtr is not something that is rewarded....and likely will cost them their job.

[Thumper]

Talk about fart smellers ... I think youse dufes may have hit the nail on the head. I didn't even think of the old shareholder angle, but it makes perfect sense. SpaceX doesn't trade publicly, so there are no retail investors to muck up the works. Musk controls the company and doesn't have to walk around on eggshells to keep his investors happy. Right now, I guess I could only WISH to have a hunk of SpaceX stock!

The irony of it all? If this is the root cause, a once great company is being brought down by a Catch-22. Trying to keep the investors happy, does nothing but backfire, by causing delays and going grossly over budget. It may cost you a bit more upfront, but doing it right the FIRST time will be cheaper in the long-run. Hombre, I think your mention of "instant gratification" pretty much wraps it up and puts a bow on it. Interesting ....

[Penguin]

Posty, I could not agree more.

This MBAisation is widespread over practically every major institution or corporation. Their first priority is to make money not products/services. We're not the only ones to notice either. In the boardroom things look peachy. In the real world things fail miserably.

I've read some pretty insightful analysis of the problem and it's causes. I've yet to see even one realistic path to correct it. The fact that this type of systemic failure is SO widespread tells you that it's causes are very deep.

[BarryBobPosthole]

If you want to read about an American business process that is a prime example of how warped logic can become in business do some reading up on pharmacy benefit managers. NYT has an excellent article on it. Its behind a pay wall but you can read it with a free account. It’ll make you want to spit the bad taste out of your mouth.
BKB

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/b...costs-pbm.html

[Thumper]

Yeah P-hole. To make it easier than clicking on the NYT link and having to steer through their subscription b/s, just Google - The Opaque Industry Secretly Inflating Prices for Prescription Drugs - and there will be a pile of free links to choose from.

Don't even get me started on the pharma industry. I do have some personal experience input, but am tied up with other projects right now and will have to visit this thread later.

[Penguin]

Yep, the pharma industry is another one...

A blog I read religiously has been exploring this dysfunction for quite a while now. He has some really insightful posts on everything from political impotence to military decay to education incompetence. I believe he was some kind of British state dept guy but remains anonymous. I recommend him highly.

https://aurelien2022.substack.com/

PS: If you want to know why NATO cannot and will not change the outcome in Ukraine he lays it out in devastating detail.

[Thumper]

Well, if I were one of the astronauts stuck up there, I think by now, I'd be asking for Elon's personal cell phone number! Screw you Boeing ... YOU come up here and drive this POS back to the garage!

NASA initially floated June 18 as the earliest date the astronauts could return, after which the agency said the flight back would happen on June 22. Then that was changed to June 26, and the latest delay, announced Friday, pushed the planned landing back to an as yet undetermined new date.

Maybe Musk can start a little side business ... ISS Uber Service.