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What is happening with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft? (arstechnica.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/spaceflight

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I can't imagine why they'd do a Starliner cargo flight instead of another crewed flight test.

Maybe a less expensive (for Boeing) option would be a commercial Starliner mission to the ISS for a week or two the way Axiom has run commercial Dragon missions? I'm sure the Oceansgate type of customers would love paying for a private flight test and LARPing as explorers.

[–] lemming 5 points 2 weeks ago

I think it's supposed to be a better-paid test flight. It sound like nobody dares to send a crewed test flight and Boeing doesn't want to lose yet more money on uncrewed test flights.

To date, the company has reported losses of $1.85 billion on Starliner. As a result, Boeing has told NASA it will no longer bid on fixed-price space contracts in the future.

Wow, they really messed up big time and obviously don't think they can do better. I really wish SpaceX had competition, but they really don't. Sad.