LAS VEGAS — Boeing took another loss on its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew program as the company works to prepare the spacecraft for its delayed return from the International Space Station.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission July 31 about the company’s second quarter financial results, Boeing said it was taking an additional $125 million charge on Starliner, citing delays in completing the ongoing Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission.
Boeing has taken about $1.6 billion in charges on Starliner throughout the program, mostly since a flawed initial uncrewed test flight in late 2019. The company took a $288 million loss on Starliner in 2023, including $257 million in the second quarter of last year after the company delayed the CFT mission to 2024.
The company did not discuss Starliner during a July 31 earnings call but noted the losses were part of $1 billion in charges on fixed-price programs in its Defense and Space business unit recorded in the quarter that included work on the KC-46A tanker aircraft and VC-25B aircraft that will be the next Air Force One.
“Clearly, the results this quarter are disappointing,” said Dave Calhoun, the outgoing chief executive of Boeing, on the call, referring to the losses on those fixed-price contracts. “We expected the fixed-price development programs to remain bumpy until we complete the development phase and transition to mature long-term franchise programs.”
That has made Boeing wary about taking on future fixed-price work in that business unit. “Based on the lessons that we’ve learned in taking on these fixed-price development programs, we have maintained contracting discipline for all future opportunities,” he said.
Boeing has not ruled out additional losses on Starliner in the future, particularly as the first operational mission, Starliner-1, is delayed from February 2025 to no earlier than August 2025. “Risk remains that we may record additional losses in future periods,” the company stated in its SEC filing.
The latest loss comes as Boeing and NASA are working to wrap up the CFT mission some time in August. On July 27, controllers fired 27 reaction control system (RCS) thrusters on the spacecraft while still docked to the ISS. Officials said July 25 the tests were intended to confirm the performance of the thrusters after nearly two months in space, and after several RCS thrusters suffered degraded performance while the spacecraft approached the station for docking in June.
“Preliminary results show all the tested thrusters are back to preflight levels based on thrust and chamber pressure,” NASA said in a July 30 statement about the tests.
NASA and Boeing have not yet set a date for Starliner’s return. NASA noted in its statement that engineers were still reviewing data from ground tests of the RCS thrusters, after which NASA will hold an agency-level review and then select a date for Starliner to return to Earth.
Boeing, in its own July 31 statement, said that return preparations are underway, including holding an “integrated simulation” involving ground controllers as well as CFT astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. The station’s robotic arm also inspected the exterior of Starliner, a common procedure for visiting vehicles before their departure. That work is intended to support “potential returns throughout August,” the company noted.
