“Boeing’s Starliner losses total $1.5 billion with NASA astronauts still waiting to fly” by Michael Sheetz and Leslie Josephs at CNBC.
Key points:
- Boeing’s latest charge on its Starliner astronaut spacecraft brings the program’s overrun costs to $1.5 billion to date.
- The aerospace giant last month decided to indefinitely delay the first crewed Starliner launch.
- Since 2014, when NASA awarded Boeing with a nearly $5 billion fixed-price contract to develop Starliner, the company has recorded losses on the program almost every year.
“$257 million charge in the second quarter” of this year. It was going to launch in July, “But Boeing discovered two new problems with Starliner and called off the launch to correct the issues.”.
Still, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said on an earnings call Wednesday that the manufacturer is “in lockstep” with NASA on Starliner development…
Boeing recorded other losses in its defense, space and security unit for the second quarter: a $189 million loss in the T-7A trainer jet program and $68 million charge on its MQ-25 unit.
Boeing last year announced additional losses on the Air Force One program, bringing charges on the contract negotiated with the Trump administration to above $1 billion.
I think there’s still a world where they get through their teething issues, finish 6 ISS Crew missions, and send some Starliners on Vulcans to commercial stations. That would only be because of some customers who will pick anyone but SpaceX.
The biggest hole in that plan would be if another crew vehicle comes online, like crewed Dreamchaser, whatever Blue Origin’s hush-hush capsule is called, or even Gaganyaan.