Space News by Jeff Foust — November 19, 2019
Boeing said Nov. 18 that a report issued last week by NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) regarding the commercial crew program, including claims that the company considered withdrawing from the program, was inaccurate.
In a lengthy release, Boeing took on a number of statements in the Nov. 14 OIG report that concluded that NASA overpaid Boeing by hundreds of millions of dollars for work on the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, including claims by unnamed NASA officials that the payments were needed “to ensure the contractor continued as a second crew transportation provider.â€
“Boeing has made significant investments in the Commercial Crew program, and we are fully committed to flying the CST-100 Starliner and keeping the International Space Station crewed and operational,†the company stated. “Any implication that we ever wavered in our participation in Commercial Crew is false.â€
That statement was one of several rebuttals of conclusions made in the OIG report, focused on NASA’s decision to provide Boeing $287.2 million for “additional flexibilities†in its commercial crew work to address a potential gap in crew access. The report concluded that other approaches to dealing with that gap, including buying Soyuz seats, made $187 million of that additional funding unnecessary.
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https://spacenews.com/boeing-fires-back-at-nasa-inspector-general-regarding-commercial-crew-report/