#NASA has delayed yet again the return of the #Boeing #Starliner #CFT spacecraft and crew until at least after a July 2 spacewalk.
@WordsmithFL I realize it's a prickly pear, but can't the government seize control of Boeing on the grounds of public safety issues.
@Tacitus_Kilgore Simply, no.
The purpose of the commercial crew program is to help the private sector mature transportation services. NASA is contractually required to give Boeing a minimum of two flights. I'm sure the contract has clauses for non-performance.
Because it's a fixed-price contract, Boeing has already lost $1 billion on the program. Most likely, NASA and Boeing would agree to go their separate ways, leaving NASA only with SpaceX for the time being.
@WordsmithFL Makes sense. I figured with the safety issues they were having with their commercial aircraft as well that the US would have a reason to do so. Thank you for the clarification.
@Tacitus_Kilgore My personal opinion is that this is just risk-adverse #NASA acting like it always does when there's an unknown with crewed flight.
Their declaration of an intent to conduct an "agency-level review" says to me they're trying to get everyone to buy in on return so, if there's an accident, no one can point a finger at someone else.
If they'd found something fundamentally wrong, we'd hear whispers that they'd reached out to #SpaceX about a rescue mission. No evidence of that.