NASA did, indeed, pay a lot for the Commercial Crew program. Dating to 2010, for development and certification of their vehicles, NASA has paid SpaceX approximately $3.1 billion and Boeing $5.1 billion. SpaceX has been the critical provider. With Dragon, the company has launched 13 crewed missions to the International Space Station for NASA, with its next one set for October. All flights to date have been successful.<\/p>\n
Starliner has really struggled<\/p>\n
By contrast, Boeing has struggled mightily to bring the more expensive Starliner vehicle into service for NASA. Starliner experienced numerous issues on uncrewed test flights in 2019 and 2022; most seriously, thruster issues nearly led to the catastrophic loss of two astronauts during the spacecraft\u2019s first crew test flight in June 2024. As a result, in February<\/a>, NASA formally classified the 2024 flight of Starliner as a \u201cType A\u201d mishap. The NASA astronauts on this flight, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, ultimately had to be returned safely to Earth on a Crew Dragon vehicle.<\/p>\n As part of this review, new NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the space agency also shared some of the blame for the near-disaster.<\/p>\n \u201cStarliner has design and engineering deficiencies that must be corrected, but the most troubling failure revealed by this investigation is not hardware,\u201d Isaacman wrote in a letter to the NASA workforce at the time. \u201cIt is decision-making and leadership that, if left unchecked, could create a culture incompatible with human spaceflight.\u201d<\/p>\n