Musk calls for fully reusable rockets and spacecraft, while Boeing cleans up Starliner

New Delhi, May 7: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday called for the need for fully reusable rockets and spacecraft, not another capsule, even as rival Boeing’s much-awaited Starliner has once again scrapped its crewed mission.

“The world doesn’t need another capsule,” the tech billionaire said in a post on X.com.

“These are fully reusable rockets and spacecraft,” he added.

His comments come as Boeing on Friday cleared the crewed Starliner mission, which was expected to launch NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Indian-origin Sunita Williams to the space station. But the plane was halted just two hours before launch after a problem with a valve in the rocket’s upper stage.

Both Boeing and SpaceX signed a contract with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to fly operational missions to and from the space station with Starliner in 2014.

While SpaceX’s Dragon capsules have been launching astronauts into space on its Falcon 9 rockets since 2020, Boeing has yet to make a mark.

Although Boeing was given $4.2 billion to develop an astronaut capsule and SpaceX only $2.6 billion, SpaceX finished four years earlier.

Musk also noted the difference between the Dragon 1 and 2 crew capsule designs.

“Too many non-technical managers at Boeing,” he said.

Meanwhile, Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company, is facing a controversy over the mysterious deaths of whistleblowers.

“How do they even get any work done when there’s so much whistle blowing!?” Musk said in response to a user who cited that the company has “too many whistleblowers.”

“Boeing should turn into a whistle manufacturer,” Musk said.

Both Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon are intended to transport astronauts and cargo for NASA missions to low Earth orbit and beyond.