Over the last 15 years, NASA and U.S. private industry have joined forces to develop multiple spacecraft capable of safely ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Today, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report examining the Agency’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and its two providers—Boeing and SpaceX—as they push to certify and operate their spacecraft and continue to support crewed ISS flights through 2030.
NASA established CCP after retiring the Space Shuttle in 2011, which left U.S. and partner astronauts reliant on Russian spacecraft to reach the ISS. Under this new commercial model, providers own their vehicles while NASA purchases transportation services. In 2014, NASA awarded fixed-price contracts to Boeing and SpaceX for $4.2 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively. The total value of these contracts has since increased to over $8 billion, not including the several billion dollars that NASA and the companies have invested in additional resources. Since 2016, the OIG has issued three reports outlining the ongoing hurdles that SpaceX and Boeing have faced.
SpaceX obtained human-rating certification for its Crew Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 launch vehicle in 2020, completing 12 crewed missions to date. However, Boeing has not yet obtained human-rating certification for its Starliner capsule and Atlas V launch vehicle. Since 2020, the company’s flight tests have uncovered numerous issues, including helium leaks, propulsion system failures, and parachute anomalies. These challenges precipitated 6 years of delays and culminated in a crewed flight test in June 2024 that experienced significant technical challenges. NASA ultimately classified the crewed flight test as a Type A mishap—its most serious classification. According to recent estimates, Starliner will likely not obtain human-rating certification until 2027 at the earliest.
The OIG determined that NASA was initially overconfident in Boeing because the company had extensive space flight experience and was utilizing previously flown space flight components. As a result, the Agency accepted Boeing’s unrealistic launch and flight test schedules, leading to performance shortfalls that affected hardware, software, propulsion systems, and flight simulator testing. NASA did not exercise its limited contractual rights to access Boeing’s flight simulator training data, and therefore it did not fully analyze the simulation failures. In addition, the Agency faces workforce constraints that may further impede oversight, delay technical resolutions, and hinder flight certification schedules.
Today, NASA lacks sufficient contracted flights to fully crew the ISS through 2030, the planned end of the Station’s operational life, so it will need to purchase additional flights from either Boeing or SpaceX. Before Starliner is certified, its next flight (Starliner-1) will transport cargo rather than astronauts to prioritize safety and validate the changes made since its 2024 crewed flight test. NASA has already spent an extra $17 million to accelerate SpaceX flights originally planned for Starliner. Moving forward, the uncertainty of Starliner’s certification timeline and the decision to fly Starliner-1 without a crew will likely increase costs even further. The Agency has also prematurely authorized additional Boeing flights that are not yet certain to fly. As a result, the OIG questioned $127.9 million in payments to Boeing, in addition to the $43 million it previously questioned in a 2019 report.
Lastly, the OIG determined that NASA’S requirements for mishap reporting contained ambiguities that delayed key evaluation milestones after Boeing’s 2024 crewed flight test. It took the Agency 21 months to categorize the event as a serious mishap, which created delays that persist to this day.
NASA has invested over a decade of time and resources into CCP, with only about 4 years of crewed operations remaining before the ISS’s planned decommission. To maximize this limited time, the OIG made six recommendations that enhance CCP oversight, maintain crew safety, mitigate Starliner delays, ensure timely issue classification, and address workforce constraints.
