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News on August 2,BoeingThe company announced on Wednesday that its "StarCraftairlinerThe Commercial Crew Program’s losses continue to mount, with total losses for the program now approaching $1.6 billion.

According to Boeing's latest quarterly financial report, the company lost $125 million on the Starliner project this quarter, mainly due to the delay of the first manned flight test (Crew Flight Test). Including this new financial loss, the cumulative loss of the project has approached $1.6 billion since 2016.

These losses were mainly caused by project delays andspaceshipTen years ago, NASA (NASA) awarded Boeing a $4.2 billion contract to complete the development of the Starliner spacecraft, which Boeing expects to be ready for manned flights by the end of 2017. However, the first manned flight test does not actually begin until June 5, 2024.

Boeing also announced on Wednesday that it has named Kelly Ortberg as its new CEO, effective August 8. He was previously CEO of Collins Aerospace.

Boeing in trouble

When NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX to develop the Starliner and Crew Dragon spacecraft, respectively, for manned space missions, it signed fixed-price contracts with the two companies, which stipulate that costs that exceed the budget are borne by the contractors themselves.

As a result, Boeing's financial statements have recorded new losses for each delay in the Starliner program since 2016. Boeing has warned investors that the company may suffer further losses on the Starliner program in the coming months and years due to problems discovered during ongoing flight tests.

Boeing mentioned in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that there could be more losses in the future.

As of the latest losses announced on Wednesday, NASA and Boeing have spent more than $6.7 billion on the Starliner project since 2010, including development and testing costs for the spacecraft and payments for six manned flights.

Compared with SpaceX's "Manned Dragon" project, the latter has a total contract value of more than $3.1 billion and has begun manned flights since 2020. SpaceX has completed the six manned space missions originally contracted, and Boeing expects it will take at least another year to start operating the "Starliner" spacecraft. Due to Boeing's project delays, NASA has extended SpaceX's contract, adding eight round-trip flight missions to the International Space Station until the end of the 2020s.

Boeing executives believe that the losses in the Starliner project are due to the structure of the fixed-price contract. Boeing also has similar contracts with the US military for the development of a new Air Force One presidential plane, an aerial refueling tanker, etc. These projects also suffered losses.

SpaceX, by contrast, has excelled at executing fixed-price contracts, which NASA has also used for several parts of its Artemis lunar program, which aims to send astronauts to the moon. For example, NASA selected SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to develop manned lunar landers based on fixed-price contracts. SpaceX also won a contract to provide deorbit services for the International Space Station at the end of its life cycle.

Decision Moment

The first manned flight test of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is expected to end in August this year, when NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will return to Earth from the International Space Station. The success of this test flight will pave the way for Boeing to begin six manned space missions.

But the situation is not that simple. The Starliner test flight was originally expected to stay at the space station for at least eight days. Before the June launch, NASA and Boeing management had indicated that the mission might be extended, but they did not foresee that the spacecraft would stay at the International Space Station for more than 50 days.

Mission management has asked the Starliner spacecraft to remain at the space station through June and July so engineers can fix problems with the propulsion system, mainly a helium leak in the service module and overheating of the spacecraft's small maneuvering thrusters during docking.

NASA, which oversees Boeing's commercial crew program, is close to approving the Starliner to return to Earth, possibly as early as next week. Ground controllers directed the spacecraft to test its maneuvering thrusters on Saturday, and 27 of the 28 thrusters worked properly. Despite the helium leak, NASA officials said the spacecraft had enough helium to pressurize the propulsion system.

NASA executives will hold a readiness review to review the findings of the propulsion system issue before giving final approval for the Starliner to undock from the International Space Station and return to Earth.

Boeing will need to address helium leaks and thruster overheating issues for future crewed missions. NASA had hoped that a flawless test flight would formally approve the Starliner spacecraft for routine six-month missions to the space station by the end of the year, allowing Boeing to launch its first operational flight in February 2025.

However, due to problems encountered during the test flight, NASA announced last week that the Starliner-1 mission would be postponed for six months to allow more time to resolve these problems.