The Boeing Company

We all know about Elon Musk and his Company SpaceX, and their plan to send people on the Red Planet (Mars). But, what we don’t know, there is a company trying to compete with Musk and the SpaceX into reaching our neighbor planet Mars.

That company is called The Boeing Company. Boeing is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rockets, and satellites. Boeing is among the largest aircraft manufacturers throughout the globe, and also one of the largest defense contractor in the world.

Boeing company headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois. The current president and CEO of Boeing is Dennis Muilenberg, a role he assumed since July of 2015.

Boeing is not only a very well known aircraft and weapons manufacturer, it is also a well-established company in space missions. A unit of the company called Defense, Space and Security, formerly known as Boeing Integrated and Defense System or IDS is one of the world’s largest defense, space and security businesses. It was established in 2002 by combining the former Military Aircraft and Missile Systems division and Space and Communications Division. The unit is responsible for defense and aerospace products and services. In 2017, Boeing in its Defense, Space, and Security alone had a revenue of $93 billion dollars.

From a company that developed aircraft and other military grade weapons, Boeing decided to also expand their presence in another aerospace field of satellite communications.

On September 29, 2015, NASA awarded a key contract to Boeing, the International Space Station prime contractor, a contract worth 1.18 billion dollars that extends up to 5 years, to continue providing key engineering support services, resources, and personnel to the program until 2020. Boeing contract includes a task to assess the feasibility of extending the life of the station’s primary hardware until 2028.

In 2014, NASA announced that two private companies, Boeing and SpaceX, have been tasked to develop a fleet of domestic rockets to continue sending astronauts in the International Space Station. The goal of the project is to end the United States sole reliance on Russia by the year 2017.

"Thanks to the leadership of President Obama, the hard work of our NASA and industry teams, and support from Congress, today we are one step closer to launching our astronauts from U.S. soil on American spacecraft and ending the nation’s sole reliance on Russia by 2017. Turning over low-Earth orbit transportation to private industry will also allow NASA to focus on an even more ambitious mission – sending humans to Mars."

Charlie Bolden – Former NASA administrator

The contracts given to both companies are designed to complete the NASA certification for human space transportation systems that are capable of carrying people into Earth’s orbit. NASA plans to use the system to ferry astronauts to the ISS and get them safely back to earth. The contract also includes at least one crewed flight test per company with at least one NASA astronaut aboard the spacecraft to verify the fully integrated rocket and spacecraft system can launch, maneuver in orbit, and dock to the space station. Once each company’s test program has been completed successfully and its system receives NASA certification, each company will conduct at least two, and as many as six crewed mission to the space station.

In an exclusive interview with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenberg last December of 2017, Muilenberg announced that Boeing will beat Elon Musk and his company SpaceX into sending the first human to Mars. Muilenberg revealed that Boeing is in the final assembly stages of developing a rocket that is estimated to be 36 foot tall called Space Launch System with the help of NASA. According to Muilenberg, the rocket will have its first test flight in 2019.

“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.”

Dennis Muilenberg – CEO, The Boeing Company

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk quickly responded to his twitter with words “Do it.”