Starliner

Congratulations to Boeing for its successful first launch of a manned Starliner spacecraft. The ship took off this morning from Cape Canaveral, propelling its two-man crew toward the International Space Station atop an Atlas V rocket. (The Atlas V was originally a Lockheed-Martin product but is now under joint development by Boeing and Lockheed-Martin.)

The Starliner launch is a welcome success for Boeing, which has come under fire lately for a series of technical mishaps and quality-control failures amid suggestions that the company's embrace of DEI goals and its departure from its traditionally engineering-focused management might be undermining its commitment to excellence.

Pilot Barry Wilmore offered a few words from the Starliner capsule just minutes before launch. I thought what his speech lacked in eloquence it more than made up for in simple, unapologetic patriotism, and so I'll quote it in its entirety.

For anybody listening, just a thought. Suni [co-pilot Sunita Williams] and I, as we were traveling to the pad, we saw many American flags and many of you were waving flags at us. And then as we reached the pad we looked up and of course there’s that American flag on the side of the white room, also one on the side of the rocket itself. And we know that that represents unity, and resilience, and unified efforts for the common good. And that’s what Suni and I have witnessed this last month: each of you displaying what this nation’s forefathers envisioned, a people committed to God, Family, and country, a people who use their gifts and talents for the common good, and are passionate and tough. And we all know that when the going gets tough, and it often does, the tough get going. And you have. And Suni and I are honored to share this dream of spaceflight. So let’s get going! Let’s put some fire in this rocket. Let’s push it to the heavens, where all these tough Americans have prepared it to be.

Safe travels, first crew of the Boeing Starliner.