Closing Bell - Manifest Space: Boeing’s Starliner Maiden Flight with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson 5/6/24

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

After nearly a decade, Boeing’s Starliner is about to embark on its first-ever crewed flight. The CFT is scheduled to lift off as soon as tonight. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson joins Morgan Brennan to discuss the milestone, the role of commercial space in the space agency’s outlook, and more.

A milestone 10 years in the making. The first space flight of Boeing's Starliner, with people on board. The crew flight test, or CFT, is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. On board, veteran NASA astronauts Barry Butch Wilmore and Sunita Suni Williams. NASA awarded Boeing a $4.2 billion fixed contract to develop Starliner back in 2014, part of the commercial crew program to replace the space shuttle. SpaceX also is part of the program with its Dragon capsule, which began carrying its first astronauts back in 2020.

Boeing, though, has faced a series of delays, including a failed first uncrewed flight and a variety of technical issues. NASA's Administrator Bill Nelson says he has confidence in Boeing and that the company has gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure this first crewed mission will be a success. I'm very confident of this spacecraft. As a matter of fact, any time that you do a new spacecraft, there are a lot of chinks to get ironed out. CFT will last roughly 10 days, carrying its passengers to the International Space Station before returning to Earth in a parachute and airbag-assisted ground landing.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V will transport Starliner to orbit, marking the first time ever the workhorse rocket has flown people. If all goes according to plan, Starliner could begin ferrying astronauts to the ISS in the first of six NASA-contracted missions as soon as next year. Something I discussed last month with Boeing Defense Space and Security Vice President Kay Sears, who oversees the company's Starliner program. I think what's beyond that really depends on how the industry develops in low Earth orbit, whether some of the commercial destinations emerge and become a reality. We're going to be in the transportation business to LEO,

and so we're kind of watching that market to see how it develops. Liftoff is currently scheduled for 10.34 p.m. Eastern on Monday night. Ahead of it, on this episode, I spoke with NASA's administrator and former senator and a space shuttle astronaut himself, Bill Nelson, about Starliner, the role of commercial space in NASA's plans, and the new space race between the U.S. and China for the moon. I'm Morgan Brennan, and this is Manifest Space. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, it's so great to speak with you today. Thanks for joining me on the eve of Boeing's Starliner crewed mission, crewed test flight to the International Space Station. Why is this such a momentous moment? Because it's a brand new spacecraft. First time, two astronauts, test pilots both,

think about this legacy. First time humans ride on a new spacecraft. It happened with Mercury, with John Glenn in orbit. Then it happened with Gemini. Then it happened with Apollo. And then it happened with the space shuttle. It's already happened with Dragon a couple of years ago. The other spacecraft that goes to and from the International Space Station. And now it's happening with Starliner. Six new spacecraft that are being tested by humans for the first time. So how, I guess, how confident are you that this is actually going to lift off tonight in this instantaneous window, given the fact this has been 10 years in the making? We don't fly until it's ready. We think it's ready, but we'll go all the way down on the count. And if something pops up, we will stop. We'll hold the count.

We'll figure out what the problem is and go back. And in my own space flight, which was 38 years ago, we went to the pad five times, four times. We were strapped in, ready to go. The count proceeded and we were scrubbed. And it's a good thing. On the fifth try, it was an almost flawless mission. If we had gone on any one of those other four, it would have not been a good day. I mean, it's the old saying, right?

Space flight is hard. Boeing's obviously had a number of issues with Starliner over the years, technical issues, some safety issues, which I know they're dealing with in other parts of their business too. So how confident are you in Boeing when you have two astronauts, two NASA astronauts on board? I'm very confident of this spacecraft. As a matter of fact, any time that you do a new spacecraft, there are a lot of chinks to get ironed out. This is no different. Now, if the implication of your question is all the problems that Boeing has been having in their commercial airliner business, I believe that this is a separate part of Boeing. This is the defense and space part. And I don't believe the problems they've had in the commercial aircraft have spilled over into this. If they even have, they have been corrected. And this is part of the commercial crew program for NASA,

public-private partnership for NASA. As you mentioned, SpaceX's Dragon is already operational and has been since 2020, bringing NASA astronauts back and forth to the space station. What is the value of having a second company now, assuming everything goes according to plan, online with a second spacecraft? Because you have a backup. It's necessary for us to get to and from the International Space Station. And when we did not have that capability, remember after we shut down the space shuttle that used to go to the station, that was back in 2011.

The only way we had to get there was with our Russian colleagues who built the space station with us and they operated with us. Now that we have the capability on an American spacecraft to get there, we actually integrate our crews in case something happens to one of us. An American astronaut flies with the Russians on the Soyuz. A Russian cosmonaut flies with the Americans on the Dragon. And that will be the case with Starliner as well. It's another backup. And of course, that speaks to how civil space transcends geopolitical tensions here on Earth, as NASA also sets its sights on returning to the moon

and bringing human boots back onto the lunar surface here in the next couple of years. How do you navigate those dynamics where the moon is concerned? And by the way, with a backup there, NASA first chose SpaceX in a competition. I insisted on a second competition. Blue Origin won that competition for the lander. The spacecraft and the rocket are NASA's. We will go into lunar orbit and there we'll join up with first the SpaceX lander and later the Blue Origin lander. And we will have two landers, both commercially produced, that will woman and the next man will walk on the surface of the moon. And that should be late 2026. Okay. And we know there was a launch just last week or in recent days by China. We know that this does seem to be framed as a new space race

where the moon and the moon's resources are concerned. The role that NASA plays in that, and also our allies, as you see these Artemis Accords continuing to garner more and more signatures. Yes. China in their space program have been very, very secretive, their civilian space program. And it's been difficult. We are deconflicting with them in Martian orbit. We're making efforts now to deconflict with regard to lunar orbit. But it's been difficult to get along. However, we're in a space race because I don't want China to get to the south pole of the moon first

with astronauts and then say, this is ours, you stay out. And we certainly have some historical reason to be concerned about that. Look what they've done with the islands in the South China Sea. They're saying, stay out. One of those islands, by the way, is within the 200 mile limit of the Philippines. And yet, we don't want that to happen on the moon. And there's a real concern that it could. Indeed. And I think that's why it's a space race. The role that the private sector is playing in all of this, these so-called commercial space companies are playing in all of this, whether it is low Earth orbit, whether it is Artemis and getting back to the moon. Intuitive Machines is an example

of that recently. I know you've also just selected the first lunar rover companies to develop those prototypes as well. These public-private partnerships and the role that the private sector is playing in all of this, how does it enable us to do this without, I guess, the giant sums elicited from taxpayers that we've seen in previous programs? Well, it saves the government money. The significant investment of both SpaceX and Blue Origin in their two landers is a considerable savings to the government. The Eclipse program, which you just mentioned, the private company landers, which NASA gave them incentive money to develop. We're putting NASA instruments on those landers, and they're going to different parts of the moon, especially the South Pole, to be scouts for us before our astronauts actually land at the South Pole. So this time, after a half century, we go back to the moon differently.

We go with our commercial partners and we go with our international partners. The first mission of the moon is next year. They will circle the moon. It's three Americans and a Canadian. And so it tells you we go back to the moon, to a different moon, the South Pole, where we think water is. And we go with our commercial and our international partners. There have been many seeds that have been planted here over the years by NASA to enable this, all of this to start to happen and be realized. I think about all the space stations that are being developed now for

low Earth orbit. Obviously, we're talking about this lunar economy that NASA is helping to jump start as well. We get to the end of this decade. What does space exploration, what does the space economy look like? We think it's going to be robust. We think that we will take business on the face of the Earth and take it to low Earth orbit. With the development of commercial space stations, we're research, we're manufacturing, we're training can occur, allowing NASA to get out of low Earth orbit to go explore the heavens. We can do training on commercial stations for our astronauts before we send them out into the cosmos. So we think it's robust. By the way, an indication of that is we are just now seeing come into maturity the manufacturing of drugs and pharmaceutical research that is finally starting to have some big paybacks. I point you to already the new ways of producing Keytruda, which is an enormously effective drug with regard to certain types of cancer.

The growth of stem cells in zero G on all the kind of stem cell therapies that are used here on the face of the earth. I think we're just beginning to scratch the surface. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciate it. Thanks a lot. That does it for this episode of Manifest Space. Make sure you never miss a launch by following us wherever you get your podcasts and by watching our coverage on Closing Bell Overtime. I'm Morgan Brennan.