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But not as easily. Boeing has since had to eat the costs associated with an extra test flight.
by Robotbeat 5y ago
But not as easily. Boeing has since had to eat the costs associated with an extra test flight.
- nickff 5y agoFixed price has cost NASA dearly in the past, because NASA often changes things after making a purchase decision. The 'change orders' are often where contractors make their real money.
- NovemberWhiskey 5y agoContractors may lose out on the initial fixed-price contract, but they'll make it up on change requests - for any kind of realistic scale, the customer never knows exactly what they want, there are always changes, and by that point it's largely unrealistic to shop those contracts elsewhere.
- Robotbeat 5y agoNot in this case as commercial crew has two providers. So if Boeing doesn’t do the work, they just won’t be paid, and SpaceX will get more flights (and this is exactly what has happened). If this keeps going indefinitely, NASA will on-board a new partner besides Boeing, such as SNC’s Dream Chaser (other potential options include Blue Origin, who eventually want to build an orbital crew vehicle, and even technically Lockheed Martin who own the plans to Orion and are allowed to bid it commercially).
- NovemberWhiskey 5y agoI suppose it depends on the nature of the contract; for launch services I guess that makes sense; but for a development project, it's different - if you give Lockheed Martin the contract to build the Mars Ascent Vehicle, you're probably going to need to revise the requirements through the lifetime of the project, and it's not very credible to say "OK, Boeing's taking over from here" for the change requests.
- Robotbeat 5y agoFunny you say that because NASA is taking a very similar approach to the HLS lander for Artemis. They did start with just one provider (as Starship is the only one they could afford) but they’re trying to include a second lander provider ASAP, partly by the insistence of Congress (who doesn’t like that their typical defense contractor donors didn’t get picked for the first HLS lander).
- rozab 4y agoCommercial Crew is a development project, I don't see what the difference is.
- throwawaylinux 4y agohttps://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/27/boeing-lost-billion-dollars-on-trump-air-force-one-plane-deal.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/27/boeing-lost-billion-dollars-... Over a billion dollars saved for the taxpayer, and a priceless learning opportunity for Boeing (if they choose to take it). A great deal, a real win-win.