NASA wanted two rides to space. It now has one

Boeing's space dream is stuck.

Ten years ago, NASA picked two firms to fly its astronauts. SpaceX was one. Boeing was the other.

One of them delivers. The other still can't.

Let me explain. SpaceX has flown people since 2020. Trip after trip, no drama. Boeing? Still grounded.

This week brought more bad news. NASA said Boeing's next flight has no firm date. It could be a year away.

And that flight won't even carry crew. It's a cargo run, just to prove the ship works.

Remember the two stuck astronauts? In 2024, Boeing's Starliner flew them up. Then it broke. Thrusters failed. Helium leaked.

The pair were stuck up there for months. A SpaceX craft finally brought them home.

This year, NASA ruled that flight its worst class of failure. Ouch.

So here's where we stand. NASA wanted two rides for safety. It now has one.

And NASA is leaning in. It just added six more flights to SpaceX. It cut Boeing's count down.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Boeing is huge. Surely it can fix this? Maybe…

But the meter is running. Boeing has eaten more than $2 billion in losses here. And it once looked into selling the whole space unit.

Here's the lesson for you. Big and old doesn't beat nimble and hungry.

The ISS retires around 2030. Boeing is running out of road…

Watch the skies today. A rocket called Pegasus will launch — but not from the ground. A jet carries it up high, then drops it. The rocket lights in mid-air and climbs to orbit. Pegasus has flown this way since 1990. But this is its final flight ever. After today, no one launches rockets from planes anymore. Its last job? Boosting that aging NASA telescope we wrote about. A quiet end to a bold idea.

Here's a sign of the boom. More and more space firms are now worth $1 billion or more. Industry trackers count a fast-growing list. A decade ago, such "unicorns" were rare in space. Now they pop up across launch, satellites, and Earth data. Cheap rockets started it. Big government money fuels it. And private cash pours in on top. The herd is growing. Just remember: a big price tag isn't the same as a big profit.

Now for something different. Axiom and the fashion house Prada just showed off a new Moon garment. It's a cooling layer worn under the bulky spacesuit. Tubes of water run through it to carry away body heat. Artemis astronauts will wear it on the lunar surface. Yes, Prada — the luxury brand. High fashion, meet hard vacuum. Even the Moon has a dress code now.

Keep an eye on a spaceplane called Dream Chaser.

It looks like a mini space shuttle. A company named Sierra Space built it.

And here's the cool part. It won't splash into the sea. It will glide down and land on a runway, like a plane.

Its first flight should come later this year. The job: haul cargo to the space station.

Why does it matter? More options. Right now, few craft can fly to the station and back.

A gentle runway landing also means fragile cargo arrives in better shape.

If it works, more may follow. Even crew, one day.

The runway awaits…

Back to Boeing's pain. A lot of it comes down to one word: contracts.

Here are the two main kinds.

The old way is "cost-plus." The government pays all the costs. Then it adds a fee on top. Run over budget? The taxpayer covers it.

The new way is "fixed-price." The firm names one price. If the job costs more, the firm eats the loss.

NASA used to pay cost-plus for almost everything. That was safe for the builders. But it ran pricey, and it bred delays.

So for crew flights, NASA switched. It paid SpaceX and Boeing a fixed price each.

Here's what happened next. SpaceX built lean and made it work. Boeing ran way over and ate the loss.

More than $2 billion in losses, in fact.

So the same deal rewarded one firm and punished the other. Same rules… different outcomes.

In other words, a fixed price is a bet on yourself. Win, and you keep the savings. Miss, and you bleed.

That's the deal reshaping all of space now.