Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Boeing CEO Says Boeing Will Beat SpaceX To Mars (space.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the space-race dept.

Boeing's CEO says the megarocket his company is helping to build for NASA will deliver astronauts to the Red Planet before billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX. Space.com reports: According to Fortune, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg was speaking on CNBC today when host Jim Cramer asked whether Boeing or SpaceX would "get a man on Mars first." "Eventually we're going to go to Mars, and I firmly believe the first person that sets foot on Mars will get there on a Boeing rocket," Muilenburg said, according to Fortune. Boeing is the main contractor for the first stage of NASA's giant Space Launch System , which is designed to launch astronauts on deep-space missions using the space agency's new Orion spacecraft. (United Launch Alliance, Orbital ATK and Aerojet Rocketdyne are also SLS contractors.) NASA hopes to build a "Deep Space Gateway" near the moon before using SLS and Orion vehicles to send explorers to Mars. The first test launch is scheduled for 2019. "Do it," Musk tweeted.

7 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. Meh. M. E. H. Meh. by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Boeing is just "baiting" Musk to spend a lot of time and money on Mars because they - and the rest of the United Space Alliance - are feeling the hurt of all SpaceX's recent successful satellite launches.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  2. Boeing is first in everything by phayes · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah, just like Boeing was the first to develop reusable first stages for orbital class launchers... /s

    --
    Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
  3. Elon's Twitter reply by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Do it"

  4. These quotes are so inanely predictable. by Nutria · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What else is the Boeing CEO going to say, that SpaceX is going to beat them???

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  5. First In Pork by mentil · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Uh huh. If there are no delays, the SLS will be sent on its first Mars mission TEN YEARS after SpaceX is planning on sending humans to Mars. Not like SpaceX has never seen delays... but the question really becomes, who is better known for worse delays: Boeing, or SpaceX? OTOH if a private enterprise beats ALL governments to landing a human on Mars, that'd be a pretty big black eye for those other space programs with ostensibly larger budgets, authority and reach.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  6. We've needed a Space Race for 45years by aklinux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nothing like a little competion to inspire progress.

  7. Lol. UAE is going to beat Boeing. by WindBourne · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Seriously, Boeing is doing nothing unless the feds fund things at 100%. And what will we do now that trump/GOP are going to jump deficit spending way up? Nothing. NASA is very likely going to get killed.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.