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Boeing received 'unnecessary' contract boost for astronaut capsule, watchdog says
Boeing’s multibillion dollar contract to build U.S. astronaut capsules received an “unnecessary” extension from NASA, a watchdog report said on Thursday, the latest management blunders in the agency’s program to restart domestic human spaceflight.
NASA agreed to pay Boeing Co (BA.N) a $287 million premium for “additional flexibilities” to accelerate production of the company’s Starliner crew vehicle and avoid an 18-month gap in flights to the International Space Station. NASA’s inspector general called it an “unreasonable” boost to Boeing’s fixed-priced $4.2 billion dollar contract.
Instead, the inspector general said the space agency could have saved $144 million by making “simple changes” to Starliner’s planned launch schedule, including buying additional seats from Russia’s space agency, which the United States has been reliant on since the 2011 retirement of its space shuttle program.
[...] In a response to the inspector general’s report, NASA “strongly” disagreed with the report’s findings that it overpaid Boeing, though it did agree the “complex and extensive” negotiations with the aerospace company could have resulted in a lower price.
“However, this is an opinion, three years after the fact and there is no evidence to support the conclusion that Boeing would have agreed to lower prices,” the agency said in a letter to the inspector general.
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Boeing seems upset with NASA's inspector general
"We strongly disagree with the report's conclusions about CST-100 Starliner pricing and readiness, and we owe it to the space community and the American public to share the facts the Inspector General missed," Jim Chilton, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space and Launch, stated in a release posted on Boeing's website.
Boeing's response takes issue with several parts of NASA's report. But the company appears especially exercised about the claim that NASA overpaid Boeing for seats on the third through sixth Starliner missions, payment over and above what was originally agreed upon as part of the company's fixed price contract with the space agency.
"Through fair and open negotiations with NASA in a competitive environment, we offered single-mission pricing for post-certification missions 3-6, thus enabling additional flexibility and schedule resiliency to enhance future mission readiness," the Boeing statement reads.
[...] In its response, Boeing said its per-seat price was not $90 million, although the company declined to say what its actual price is or provide any documentation to support this claim. "For proprietary, competitive reasons Boeing does not disclose specific pricing information, but we are confident our average seat pricing to NASA is below the figure cited," the company's statement reads.
Previously: NASA Warned Of Safety Risks In Delayed Private Crew Launches
Boeing Received 'Unnecessary' Contract Boost for Astronaut Capsule, Watchdog Says
Boeing hit with 61 safety fixes for astronaut capsule:
In releasing the outcome of a joint investigation, NASA said it still has not decided whether to require Boeing to launch the Starliner again without a crew, or go straight to putting astronauts on board.
Douglas Loverro, NASA's human exploration and operation chief, told reporters that Boeing must first present a plan and schedule for the 61 corrective actions. Boeing expects to have a plan in NASA's hands by the end of this month.
Loverro said the space agency wants to verify, among other things, that Boeing has retested all the necessary software for Starliner.
"At the end of the day, what we have got to decide is ... do we have enough confidence to say we are ready to fly with a crew or do we believe that we need another uncrewed testing," Loverro said.
Boeing's Jim Chilton, a senior vice president, said his company is ready to repeat a test flight without a crew, if NASA decides on one.
"'All of us want crew safety No. 1," Chilton said. "Whatever testing we've got to do to make that happen, we embrace it."
Loverro said he felt compelled to designate the test flight as a "high-visibility close call." He said that involves more scrutiny of Boeing and NASA to make sure mistakes like this don't happen again.
Software errors not only left the Starliner in the wrong orbit following liftoff and precluded a visit to the International Space Station but they could have caused a collision between the capsule and its separated service module toward the end of the two-day flight. That error was caught and corrected by ground controllers just hours before touchdown.
Citation: Boeing hit with 61 safety fixes for astronaut capsule (2020, March 6) retrieved 6 March 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2020-03-boeing-safety-astronaut-capsule.html
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @01:29PM
Space hookers and moon blow ain't cheap.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Monday November 18 2019, @01:41PM (7 children)
"no evidence to support the conclusion that Boeing would have agreed to lower prices"
Well, of course they wouldn't have. When you are a single-source contractor, you don't have to agree to anything. You don't have to deliever, either - you just keep billing costs to your yummy "cost-plus" contract. That's what it's there for.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @01:51PM (2 children)
Please read the summary again: it was a FIXED PRICE contract.
This means if anything unforseen comes up, the contract is pretty much going to have to have changes made.
Fixed price only makes sense for completely routine, predictable, low impact work where deadlines are flexible.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday November 18 2019, @02:30PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @03:52PM
Some contracts make no sense to bid as "fixed price."
This may have been one of those. The govt chooses, so it's one them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FatPhil on Monday November 18 2019, @02:27PM (3 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by fustakrakich on Monday November 18 2019, @03:55PM (1 child)
It's Jews in space [dailymotion.com]
Sorry, couldn't resist...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @06:38PM
Flamebait
Yeah, it figures that some fucking moron would get triggered by that one
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19 2019, @04:45AM
The pigs have yet to achieve orbit, so it is pigs hanging around the launch pad.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday November 18 2019, @01:58PM (1 child)
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1195143726504370176 [twitter.com]
I don't think anything will come of it just yet. They were overpaid fair and square... or just square.
A little greed and corruption now could hurt later when they are competing against something else [teslarati.com].
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday November 18 2019, @02:27PM
Eh, greed and corruption may be annoying but it also got us to the moon. Much like salt on food, you need to know when it becomes too much and you need to know it before it happens.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @05:46PM
They've got other customers for building spacecraft do they?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @06:21PM (5 children)
They will pawn off the labor to India.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @08:14PM (3 children)
Only the toilet technology.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @08:25PM (2 children)
Bill Gates is a better choice for that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @08:36PM (1 child)
A blue screen of doodoo?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday November 18 2019, @09:47PM
Not blue, otherwise correct all the time.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19 2019, @04:52AM
The Boeing Starliner is being built in Decatur, Alabama. NASA's SLS is being built in Huntsville, Alabama. Senator Richard Shelby is the head of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Guess which state he's from.