--- title: "Boeing Is Losing a Staggering Amount of Money on Its Dismal Starliner Failure" description: "Boeing took a $250 million charge against its earnings in its third quarter, increasing total Starliner-related costs to $1.85 billion." date: "2024-10-25" modified: "2024-10-25" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/boeing-losing-money-starliner-failure" categories: - "Boeing" - "Space" tags: - "boeing" - "international space station" - "NASA" - "SpaceX" - "starliner" - "the digest" --- # Boeing Is Losing a Staggering Amount of Money on Its Dismal Starliner Failure ![Boeing took a $250 million charge against its earnings in its third quarter, increasing total Starliner-related costs to $1.85 billion.]() *\Image: NASA / Futurism\* ## Imcoster Syndrome Embattled aerospace giant Boeing is in even bigger trouble after its [plagued Starliner spacecraft]() left two NASA astronauts [stranded]() earlier this year. The project's costs have continued to spiral over six weeks after the capsule [returned]() to Earth [without any astronauts on board](). As [*SpaceNews* reports](), Boeing took a massive $250 million hit on the Starliner program in its third-quarter earnings, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That's in addition to a [$125 million write-off]() related to Starliner in the company's second fiscal quarter this year. The total cost of the failed commercial crew program has ballooned to around $1.85 billion, a stunning sum considering the company has been working on the spacecraft for over a decade and has yet to successfully deliver and then return astronauts to the space station. The project, which is directly competing with SpaceX's far more successful Crew Dragon spacecraft, is on thin ice, and Boeing has [remained suspiciously vague]() about its future. "We’ve got some tough contracts and there’s no magic bullet for that," Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who took over the reins in August, told investors during a recent earnings call, as quoted by *SpaceNews*. "We’re going to have to work our way through some of those tough contracts." ## Contracted Ortberg, however, appeared defiant that Boeing will continue working on its much-maligned Starliner, saying that walking away from the project isn't a "viable option for us." "Even if we wanted to, I don’t think we can walk away from these contracts," he told investors, caveating a possible scenario where a given program goes from one phase of a contract to another. It's far from just Starliner that Boeing has to worry about. The company has plenty of other major fires to put out these days, including a [commercial jet business in crisis]() and a [massive industrial worker strike](). Overall, the company's quarterly losses have [surged to $6 billion](), with Ortberg promising a "fundamental culture change." "This is a big ship that will take some time to turn, but when it does, it has the capacity to be great again," he told investors, as [quoted by *Reuters*](). Where that leaves the future of Starliner remains unclear at best. Earlier this month, NASA [announced]() it would make use of SpaceX's Crew Dragon for two upcoming crew rotation missions to the space station, the latter of which was originally [scheduled to make use of Starliner](). "Clearly, our core of commercial airplanes and defense are going to stay with The Boeing Company in the long run," Ortberg said, "but there’s probably some things on the fringe that we can be more efficient with or that just distract us from our main goals." **More on Starliner:** *[NASA Abandons Boeing's Cursed Starliner for Upcoming Missions to the Space Station]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()