space flight is risky even at its saf safest and even at its most routine and a test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine Boeing is facing yet another significant setback as two US astronauts originally scheduled for an 8-day Mission aboard Boeing Starliner find themselves branded on the International Space Station ISS for what has now turned into an 8-month ordeal this is a tough business that we're in human space flight is not easy in any regime and there have been multiple issues with every spacecraft that's ever been designed and that's the nature of what we do you know that Mantra you've heard failure is not an option that's why we are staying here now the astronauts Barry Butch Wilmore and Sunni th Sunni Williams will return to Earth not on their own spacecraft but aboard a rival SpaceX vehicle marking a major embarrassment for Boeing in its ongoing rivalry with Elon Musk SpaceX this has not been an easy decision but it is absolutely the right one NASA made the tough call to keep the astronauts on the ISS and to send Starliner back to Earth without a crew prioritizing safety above all else while NASA insists it hasn't lost confidence in Boeing this latest failure adds to the company's growing list of high-profile struggles especially in light of the ongoing rivalry with SpaceX we have had so many embarrassments lately we are under a microscope this just made it like 100 times worse we hate SpaceX we talk about them all the time and now they're bailing us out it's shameful I'm embarrassed I'm horrified in 2014 NASA awarded contracts to both Boeing and SpaceX to develop spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to the ISS aiming to Foster competition and ensure redundancy however the Rivalry quickly became one-sided while SpaceX has successfully completed nine crude launches and established its crude dragon as NASA's preferred vehicle Boeing has struggled with delays and Technical challenges failing to achieve certification as a result Boeing is now $1.6 billion over budget and may incur additional costs if NASA requires further crude test flights fruit Starliner space craft you never want to just have one option you that's what we found with the space shuttle way back when you know when we had the first accident there was a lot put into one vehicle so having a second option is really important Elon Musk SpaceX beat boing to the punch and has been the lone vehicle used to taxi astronauts for the past 4 years this year's crude Starliner flight which followed years of delays during the craft development was meant to be a last test of the vehicle before it enters regular operations um we need to get the vehicle back on Deck uh go through the data and once we've done that um we'll we'll start thinking about our next steps the trouble began shortly after the Starliner successfully launched on June 5th carrying Wilmore and Williams to the ISS however as the spacecraft neared the space station NASA and Boeing identified a series of technical issues including helium leaks and problems with the spacecraft's reaction control thrusters these issues raise serious concerns about whether Starliner could safely return the astronauts to Earth at that point it there was no logical or safety rationale to put two human beings at risk for this Return of the Brewing Starliner so we will go back on cruise this is where the rubber beats the road where we are going to leave this planet and that is pretty darn cool this is a test flight so when you do test you expect to find things and we expect to find things