[tim333]

There'a an answer here on what went wrong. It seems some Boeing management knew the thrusters could overheat but didn;t fix it to save a few bob https://anythingspaceastronomy.quora.com/Boeing-Management-o...

It seems rather reminiscent of their other problems of doing a hack on the 737 Max which caused the crashes and ignoring safety inspections which caused the panel to blow out.

It's kind of interesting if you see Musk talk about the rockets design it's evident he pretty much understands it all and controls the money and so is able to make sensible decisions to do this, don't do that - see this 2021 vid for example https://youtu.be/t705r8ICkRw . With Boeing you get the impression you don't really have that and you have an accountant type saying your budget for this is $x without undertanding they engineering they are paying for.

[tiahura]

Did you actually read the link you posted? It discusses a failure in involving designing and communicating specifications, not trying to save a buck.

[tim333]

Ah right you are. I got my links muddled. I was kind of thinking of this one that had the "Boeing didn't want to pay vendors for design changes" idea. I'm not sure that's proven though.

https://x.com/theJordanNoone/status/1823421499686183220

[skissane]

See this from Eric Berger:

> "Boeing and Rocketdyne more or less hated one another," one person involved in the test told Ars. "Everyone was in super-defensive mode even before this happened. It had been classified as a risk, but the two sides weren’t talking openly and honestly about it."

> What was the source of the animosity? After Boeing selected Rocketdyne, according to sources, it asked for changes to some system specifications. This prompted Rocketdyne to ask for a change order fee, as is customary in government contracts. That infuriated Boeing, which thought it had a partnership with Rocketdyne, but the latter company saw itself as a contractor. As a result, the Boeing and Rocketdyne teams were effectively walled off from one another and did not iterate together toward a more effective propulsion system.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/the-surprise-is-not-th...