Boeing's Failed Starliner Mission Strains 'Reliability' Pitch

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:

Boeing's failed Starliner mission strains 'reliability' pitch:

Boeing Co's (BA.N) stunted Friday debut of its astronaut capsule threatens to dent the U.S. aerospace incumbent's self-declared competitive advantage of mission reliability against the price and innovation strengths of "new space" players like Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Boeing, the world's largest aerospace company, has anchored its attempt to repel space visionaries like Musk and Amazon.com (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos partly on its mission safety record built up over decades of space travel.

While SpaceX and Bezos' Blue Origin are racing to send their own crewed missions to space for the first time, Boeing or Boeing heritage companies have built every American spacecraft that has transported astronauts into space. And the single-use rockets it builds in partnership with Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) have a virtually unblemished record of mission success.

"We are starting from a position of mission reliability and safety," Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg told Reuters earlier this year when asked about SpaceX and other insurgents aiming to disrupt Boeing on everything from astronaut capsules to rockets to satellites.

"There is a difference between putting cargo in space and putting humans in space, and that's a big step. Our very deliberate, safety-based approach for things like CST-100, that will be a differentiator in the long run," Muilenburg said.

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