TechCrunch Space: Catching stars

Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. In case you missed it, Boeing and NASA decided to keep Starliner docked to the International Space Station for the rest of the month. The agency is aiming to complete a key review in the first week of August, at which point they’ll make a decision on when to bring the spacecraft (and the two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams) home.

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Story of the week

Falcon 9 is back. Just about two weeks after the rocket experienced an anomaly that derailed a routine Starlink launch, regulators have given SpaceX the all-clear to resume launches of the most reliable rocket in history.

What we’re reading

Over at Ars Technica, Eric Berger has an important story about one of the most pressing issues in the space industry: NASA’s new fixed price contracting models are great for SpaceX and really, really challenging for everyone else.

This is a big issue, because NASA says it wants to stimulate more competition, but simply no one else can compete on price the way SpaceX can. Here’s Berger:

In short, only one company — SpaceX — is thriving in NASA’s commercial space ecosystem.

That is not a great position for the space agency to find itself in, so there are plenty of questions for NASA and policymakers. Do they cave to traditional space contractors and go back to cost-plus contracts for most services? (Slow and expensive.) Do they turn over many of their spaceflight functions to SpaceX? (Not desirable or politically practical.) Do they continue to hope and wait for other companies to make the next step? (The early returns are not great.)

The push toward commercial space seems admirable. But NASA needs a strategy, likely involving fewer requirements and more financial support, to help us get there.

This week in space history

Beep beep! (Just kidding, there aren’t horns on lunar rovers.) On July 30, 1971, astronauts drove a rover on the moon for the first time. I don’t know about you, but I am very, very excited to see the designs for the next generation of lunar rovers from Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost, and Venturi Astrolab.