Can Boeing turn things around…in space?

After taking so many Ls on Earth the past few years, Boeing is hoping it can score a much-needed win by leaving the atmosphere.

Tonight, Boeing is planning to launch its Starliner capsule that will ferry two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. It will have that new car smell—the vehicle has never carried a human crew onboard before.

The stakes are high: For Boeing, Starliner is a chance to prove it can safely shuttle people to orbit and deflect mounting criticism of its quality control measures. For NASA, it’s an opportunity to reduce its dependency on SpaceX for space missions and add a new model to the space taxi fleet.

How we got here

A decade ago, NASA awarded up to $6.8 billion in contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to fill in for the retired Space Shuttle program and ferry its astronauts to the ISS. Only Elon Musk’s company understood the assignment:

• SpaceX has flown nine crewed flights for NASA since 2020, not to mention four with private astronauts.

• Dogged by a series of technical issues, Boeing has launched only two Starliner test flights, none of which carried people. That turned out to be a good thing: On one of the test runs, the computer onboard the spacecraft was 11 hours off, leading to chaos.

In all, the Starliner program has been delayed for seven years and cost $1.5 billion more than expected.

Even if Starliner dazzles in its inaugural crewed mission, the upside in the space taxi business is unclear for Boeing. The ISS is planned to be decommissioned in 2030, meaning Boeing could only make a maximum of six more missions for NASA. Plus, its 737 Max production troubles—stemming from a door plug blowout in January—left it with $3.9 billion in cash outflows in Q1, raising questions about its ability to fund its commercial space ambitions, Bloomberg reported.

Looking ahead…NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is confident in Starliner, saying, “This is a clean spaceship, and it’s ready to launch.” Liftoff is scheduled at 10:34 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral.