Small Space News Story Roundup 51

Because all of the news seems fixated on reporting things like NASA closing their DEI Office.

SpaceX Notches Another Milestone

It's another all-time world record because nobody is even close to really competing with them.  On Tuesday, Jan 21, the Starlink launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base crossed the next milestone, the 400th successful booster recovery.  Every successful recovery is a new record number, so only the Big Round Numbers get press.  The number of landings (400) is for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters only.  Starship's SuperHeavy boosters aren't counted here. 

This was the 10th flight for the first stage booster in this mission, which previously launched Oneweb 4, USSF-62, and now eight Starlink missions.  That time in the X screen capture, BTW, is shifted to EST; it was 7:54 AM PST.  The recovery drone ship was Of Course I Still Love You, the only one of the drone ships operating in California. 

Boeing to take additional Starliner losses in the 4th quarter

In a Jan. 23 press release, Boeing provided preliminary results for the fourth quarter of 2024. That included a projection of $1.7 billion in charges against earnings for five programs in its Defense, Space and Security business unit.

While they didn't provide more detail of how much losses will go against Starliner (I suspect "can't" is a more accurate word than "didn't"), by looking at the third quarter report it's probably reasonable to estimate the losses due to Starliner are on the order of $100 to 150 million. 

In a Jan. 23 press release, Boeing provided preliminary results for the fourth quarter of 2024. That included a projection of $1.7 billion in charges against earnings for five programs in its Defense, Space and Security business unit.

Most of those charges will go towards two programs: $800 million for the KC-46A tanker and $500 million for the T-7A trainer aircraft, totaling $1.3 billion. That leaves $400 million split between charges for Starliner and another couple of programs.

Both Boeing and NASA have offered few updates on the status of Starliner since the end of its mission back in September, but it seems NASA doesn't have much faith in Starliner.  Around the time of a similar story to this one back in October the statement was that NASA said it didn't know when it would buy more Starliner missions and Boeing said they didn't know when they'd be ready - with an implication they may not be willing to spend the money. There was talk about Boeing selling its space business segment off, keeping their commercial and military aircraft-related sectors.  That talk is still out there.  In fact, in a report released today, Jan. 23, venture firm Space Capital predicted that both Boeing and Airbus would divest their space divisions this year.