NASA is alleged to have overpaid payments with its multibillion-dollar contract with Boeing to build U.S. astronaut capsules. This report by a NASA watchdog was released on Nov. 14, Thursday.
The original contract with Boeing was fixed at $4.2 billion dollars, but NASA added $287 million to cope up with the delay and speed up the Starliner crew vehicle's production in order to hit the target flights to the International Space Station.
According to Reuters, NASA has empowered Boeing and SpaceX to develop capsule systems in order to stop the reliance of U.S. with Russia's space agency since the termination in 2011 by its space shuttle program.
The report claims that a huge savings of $144 million could be a result if "simple changes" that were meted out to hit the target launch schedule of Starliner. In addition, the report showed cost overruns and delays in the schedule of developing commercial space taxis for human space flight.
There is already a two-year delay in the first human flight of the said space commercial vehicles. The report emphasizes "final vehicle certification for both contractors will likely be delayed until summer 2020, based on the number of ISS and CCP certification requirements that remain to be verified and validated."
SpaceX and Boeing's space shuttles are scheduled to initiate their first demonstration flights in 2020.
In response to the alleged overspending, NASA added a payment to ensure Boeing to be a second commercial crew provider.
Reuters reports that "NASA 'strongly' disagreed with the report's findings that it overpaid Boeing, though it did agree the 'complex and extensive' negotiations with the aerospace company could have resulted in a lower price."
"However, this is an opinion, three years after the fact, and there is no evidence to support the conclusion that Boeing would have agreed to lower prices," the agency said in a letter to the inspector general.
Boeing is under fire as it is evaluated on how it manages NASA's Space Launch System. Moreover, it also faces scrutiny with the 737 MAX aircraft being grounded due to two deadly crashes that killed 346 people in five months.
The alleged unfair treatment by NASA managers showed that "SpaceX was not provided an opportunity to propose a solution even though the company previously offered shorter production lead times than Boeing."
