Boeing has now lost $2B on Starliner, but still silent on future plans

Boeing announced Monday it lost $523 million on the Starliner crew capsule program last year, putting the aerospace company $2 billion in the red on its NASA commercial crew contract since late 2019.

The updated numbers are included in a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Risk remains that we may record additional losses in future periods,” Boeing wrote in the filing.

In 2014, NASA picked Boeing and SpaceX to develop and certify two commercial crew transporter vehicles. Like SpaceX, Boeing’s contract, now worth up to $4.6 billion, is structured as a fixed-price deal, meaning the contractor is on the hook to pay for cost overruns that go over NASA’s financial commitment.

That’s exactly what happened. Boeing has registered losses on Starliner in its quarterly earnings reports since 2020, months after the spacecraft’s first orbital test flight fell short of its objectives. It has been a steady stream of losses, or charges, on Boeing’s balance sheet since then.

Boeing officials previously reported the company lost $375 million on the Starliner program in the first three quarters of 2024. Add in another $148 million hit in the fourth quarter, and Boeing’s total losses on the Starliner program have reached $2 billion and are likely to rise more.

A rough year

The most recent financial loss comes as Boeing reels from a disappointing test flight of the Starliner spacecraft last year. Boeing and NASA expected the test flight would set the stage for the spacecraft’s final certification to begin operational crew rotation flights to and from the International Space Station.

Instead, the Starliner spacecraft suffered problems with overheating thrusters and helium leaks after its launch last June aboard an Atlas V rocket. Despite the technical issues, the capsule delivered its two-person crew—NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams—to the space station as planned. However, numerous tests of Starliner’s propulsion system in space and on the ground failed to convince NASA managers that more problems would not develop during the spacecraft’s return to Earth.

Boeing officials disagreed and asserted Starliner would bring Wilmore and Williams home.

But NASA calls the shots on the commercial crew program, and the space agency decided to leave the Starliner astronauts on the space station and return Starliner to Earth without its crew. The spacecraft parachuted to a successful landing in New Mexico in September.

Meanwhile, Wilmore and Williams are still at the space station. They went outside the station on a spacewalk last week to complete routine maintenance tasks. NASA plans to return the two astronauts to Earth on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft as soon as early April, although the exact schedule is unclear due to delays in readying SpaceX’s Dragon capsule and odd statements from Elon Musk and President Trump last week.

What’s also unclear is when, or in what form, Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft will fly again. One option NASA officials have considered is to fly a cargo mission on Starliner later this year, providing an opportunity to validate changes to the spacecraft’s propulsion system. An alternative could be to proceed with certification of the Starliner spacecraft for operational crew rotation flights, even though the crew test flight last year was incomplete.

The long-term future of Starliner is also in question. NASA’s original commercial crew contract for Boeing included six crew rotation flights once Starliner is certified. NASA has formally given Boeing the go-ahead for only three of these operational missions.

Meanwhile, NASA has extended SpaceX’s commercial crew contract through the Crew-14 mission. Like Boeing’s deal, SpaceX originally received a contract for six crew rotation flights, but NASA ordered more amid mounting Starliner delays. SpaceX wrapped up work on its original commercial crew contract in 2023 and is now executing on the extension.