Boeing and Rosie the Riveter medallions

SkyMan

As a proud American, it saddens me to see how badly the top management of Boeing has turned a once proud company into a comedians punchline. They have been living so long on the US payroll, and have such strong lobbying capability, that they have forgotten how to compete at the market level. Just look at the 737 MAX, where Boeing allegedly got special consideration from the FAA for signing off on the plane, which led to two deadly accidents. I am quite sure the engineers and middle management of Boeing are still as strong as they have ever been, and I hope the upper management has been cleaned out.

Boeing was one of two companies picked by NASA to fly astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in the Commercial Crew Program (CCP). The CCP started in 2011, with the two finalists picked on 9/16/14. The other company was SpaceX. Each company, after one crewed testing flight was to provide 6 operational flights. Boeing received $4.2 billion and SpaceX received $2.6 billion. The name of the Boeing spacecraft is the CST-100, or Starliner. The name of the SpaceX spacecraft is Dragon 2 or Crewed Dragon.

Unfortunately, due to its incompetence, Boeing has lost the possibility of actually providing true commercial spaceflight capabilities to the USA and the World. Given its significantly higher price tag for CST-100 flights, Boeing can not compete with SpaceX in the commercial spaceflight field. Boeing has already recognized this by only producing two CST-100 capsules, as opposed to its original plans of producing three. The capsule can be reused up to 10 times, but needs six months of refurbishment between flights. Given that each flight to the ISS will take six months, this means no true commercial opportunities. Further, if Boeing loses one capsule in flight, their program might well be canceled.

Boeing, even given its 61.5% HIGHER price tag than SpaceX, has managed to foul it up badly. Its uncrewed Orbital Flight Test 1 (OFT-1) in December 2019 was a near disaster. The CST-100's software was badly off in several different phases of flight. The spacecraft didn't even make it to the ISS, and almost had a disaster during reentry. This was on top of the Pad Abort Test (basically rocketing a capsule 1 mile up from a launch pad) in November 2019, when some tech hadn't even attached one of the 3 parachutes properly, so only two of the three main parachutes deployed. Boeing was ordered to complete a second OFT, which as of today, 6/17/21, it still hasn't completed.

To put things in perspective, SpaceX, as of today, has already launched 3 crewed Dragons, which include two Operational flights to the ISS. Further it is already training crews for two more operational NASA missions, as well as having two TRUE commercial, e.g. private, missions scheduled to lift off in the next 6 - 9 months.

Boeing, in its upcoming OFT-2 of the CST-100 Starliner (currently scheduled 7/30/21), will be including some Rosie the Riveter medallions in the payload. The medallions are to be handed out after the successful return of the capsule.

On the obverse, around the periphery the medallion states; Rosie the Riveter, We Can Do It. In the center is an image of Rosie the Riveter flexing her arm muscles. On the reverse, its a little harder to make out, but I believe around the periphery are Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics. In the center is the Boeing logo with (below that); Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future, and below that an image of a divider.

Trust, once lost, is hard to rebuild. I hope Boeing can return to its proud roots...

ricko

I worked with Boeing for years, they were a customer for our products. Things have changed a bit from those years. On another note, My Mom was a 'Rosie the Riveter' at Grumman during those years. Cheers, RickO

Namvet69

I had an uncle who worked at Grumman on Long Island for decades. He worked on assorted lunar projects and fighters before that. He was a talented German machinist. Peace Roy

JBK

I want a medallion!

johnny9434

@ricko said:
I worked with Boeing for years, they were a customer for our products. Things have changed a bit from those years. On another note, My Mom was a 'Rosie the Riveter' at Grumman during those years. Cheers, RickO

my neighbor marie worked for springfield armory as an inspector during the war

HoneyMarket

@SkyMan said:
Boeing, in its upcoming OFT-2 of the CST-100 Starliner (currently scheduled 7/30/21), will be including some Rosie the Riveter medallions in the payload. The medallions are to be handed out after the successful return of the capsule.

On the obverse, around the periphery the medallion states; Rosie the Riveter, We Can Do It. In the center is an image of Rosie the Riveter flexing her arm muscles. On the reverse, its a little harder to make out, but I believe around the periphery are Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics. In the center is the Boeing logo with (below that); Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future, and below that an image of a divider.

Trust, once lost, is hard to rebuild. I hope Boeing can return to its proud roots...

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It looks like Boeing might be returning to its proud roots as you had hoped!

From Twitter:

https://twitter.com/BoeingSpace/status/1528036789549768705?cxt=HHwWgoC9zafX1rQqAAAA

Dozens of Silver Snoopy pins and Rosie the Riveter commemorative coins have also made the journey to the

@Space_Station. These are very special symbols of the dedication to human spaceflight safety and the impact of women in aerospace.

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SeattleSlammer

I have no comment on what Boeing might or might not do in space in the future.

But coincidentally I drove by the main Everett Boeing plant today along 526 — and they had two of those massive doors open — revealing a row of planes-in-progress: gleaming green and silver beauties ….. (green from zinc-chromate primer I think?)

✈️✈️✈️✈️

airplanenut

@SeattleSlammer said:
I have no comment on what Boeing might or might not do in space in the future.

But coincidentally I drove by the main Everett Boeing plant today along 526 — and they had two of those massive doors open — revealing a row of planes-in-progress: gleaming green and silver beauties ….. (green from zinc-chromate primer I think?)

✈️✈️✈️✈️

I also have no comment on what they’ll do in space because I have no idea, but I will say that often there is more to the story than is in the news. And I always like driving by (or flying over) the factory. My office will move to the main campus soon, and I’m looking forward to being able to walk through the factory during down time or when I need to chat with a coworker for a while and we don’t have to be at our desks. I don’t know what it’s made of, but the green coating is a protective layer. It’s removed before painting (it’s not a primer layer to which paint is applied).

SkyMan

@HoneyMarket said:

@SkyMan said:
Boeing, in its upcoming OFT-2 of the CST-100 Starliner (currently scheduled 7/30/21), will be including some Rosie the Riveter medallions in the payload. The medallions are to be handed out after the successful return of the capsule.

On the obverse, around the periphery the medallion states; Rosie the Riveter, We Can Do It. In the center is an image of Rosie the Riveter flexing her arm muscles. On the reverse, its a little harder to make out, but I believe around the periphery are Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics. In the center is the Boeing logo with (below that); Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future, and below that an image of a divider.

Trust, once lost, is hard to rebuild. I hope Boeing can return to its proud roots...

---------

It looks like Boeing might be returning to its proud roots as you had hoped!

While I'm obviously glad that the Starliner completed its mission this time, I'm still quite skeptical. Its service module had issues with both its orbital thrusters (more powerful engines) and its reaction control (maneuvering) thrusters. Further, there were issues with its environmental controls inside the crew quarters while in space, as well as something as basic as a parachute separation device (basically a cord cutter) when the capsule landed. You do test flights to figure out the issues and fix them, BUT the Starliner already had issues with its thrusters the last time it was rolled out to the pad last year, so that IS a problem. Given that the next flight will have humans aboard, these are all concerns. Let us hope that Boeing gets the fixes right, so that humans are not killed.

... And, just to keep things in perspective, again this program is 61% MORE expensive than the SpaceX program, and SpaceX has ALREADY had a crewed test flight to the ISS, three complete crewed flights to the ISS, a fourth crewed flight currently attached to the ISS, as well as two commercial missions to space (one attached to the ISS).