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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.
(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/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(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.