The second American manned and partially reusable spacecraft, the CST—100 Starliner, did not fly into orbit in April. The test mission with the crew on board once again failed, the launch was first postponed to July, and later postponed indefinitely. The recently published preliminary financial statements of Boeing showed what truly cosmic sums all these troubles and technical problems turn out to be for the company.
The Boeing division — Defense, Space and Security — recorded $ 527 million in losses in the second quarter of 2023, the SpaceNews portal reported with reference to the company's release. Almost half of this amount, 257 million, falls on the Starliner project. Moreover, it will not be possible to cover them with any means other than your own: the contract for the development and the first few launches of the ship is signed with a fixed price for the service provided.
This budget overrun is far from the first in the history of the creation of the CST—100 Starliner. There are no final data for the whole of last year yet, but by the end of the third quarter of 2022, the project in total required additional unplanned injections in the amount of $ 883 million. Adding this amount to the latest data, we get $ 1.14 billion.
It is important to note that this is not the whole picture, but only the tip of the iceberg. The aforementioned 883 million is an extraordinary infusion of money into the project (charge against earnings). They can be either a "loan" from the budget planned for later dates of work, or unscheduled additional expenses. Which part of the 257 million designated this year has been allocated under the same mechanism, and which is only a pre-planned use of the budget, will become known after the publication of the final data.
In other words, the Starliner clearly "costs a pretty penny", but it will not be possible to determine how much it will eventually cost for Boeing.
Recall that the development of a new manned spacecraft began in 2010. Then, against the background of budget problems, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) . Its main idea was that the state covered only part of the costs of building the ship. And after its readiness, it paid for flights on terms close to market conditions.
The competition was attended by leading aerospace companies, including Blue Origin, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Corporation and Boeing. The first one left CCP on its own initiative at the third stage, a few more dropped out, the remaining three received funds for the production of prototypes. By 2014, only Boeing and SpaceX remained in the program — Sierra Nevada was unable to meet all NASA requirements for the project in time. Her Dream Chaser spaceplane took just over 300 million budget dollars and an unknown amount of her own funds. The first flight is expected in 2023.
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| The launch of the Atlas V rocket with the Boeing CST-100 Starliner in May 2022 (the second unmanned test flight). Interestingly, for Atlas, the Boe-CFT mission will be one of the last launches, the carrier goes down in history. But at the same time — the first manned launch of this rocket [. |
| Source: Reuters, Steve Nesius |
The CCP finalists received launch contracts worth $2.6 billion each with payment in tranches upon the start of services. That is, in the current fiscal year, NASA transfers payment to the company for launches scheduled for the next one. SpaceX has already fulfilled its first launch contract, it was recently extended.
After the successful completion of test flights in 2020, Crew Dragon provided six manned flights for NASA and three tourist flights on a commercial basis. About $ 525 million was spent on the development of the ship from the budget, how much SpaceX added to the amount, Elon Musk does not disclose.
As for the Starliner, the brainchild of Boeing still cannot complete the testing program. We told you more about it earlier. This year, the final test mission — Boe-CFT — is due to take place, during which the ship will have to work out a manned flight with docking to the ISS.
Today's progress of the project does not even allow us to name an approximate launch date, as stated by representatives of NASA and Boeing. In April and May, preparations for the flight were interrupted due to the fact that details were found in the parachute system, to which there are comments. Within the framework of the CCP, the most funds were allocated to Starliner — about $ 580 million.