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Not 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
by Robotbeat 5y ago
Not 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.