Boeing Starliner costly but cheaper for NASA than SpaceX switch, audit says

Boeing's Starliner costs and delays remain the target of the latest audit from NASA's Office of the Inspector General, but remains a cheaper option for the agency than relying solely on SpaceX for its commercial crew needs.

The audit released June 30 dinged the beleaguered spacecraft's tumultuous and still uncertain path toward certification and warns that the timetable for its use to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station is running short.

"Boeing has yet to successfully conduct the flight tests necessary to achieve a human-rating certification for crewed flights to the ISS and certification will likely be delayed to 2027, just three years before the planned end of the ISS's operational life in 2030," the audit states.

There are moves in Congress to extend that life to 2032, however, as well as directives for NASA to support through missions to commercial space station replacements through 2040.

NASA has still not nailed down a path forward for Starliner, which last flew in 2024. To date, the spacecraft has flown three times. The first two were uncrewed missions in 2019 and 2022. The most recent was its first crewed flight taking NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams up to the station for what was supposed to be an eight-day stay on board, launching from Cape Canaveral on June 5, 2024.

Problems with helium leaks and thrusters on the flight up, though - which NASA has since given its most severe designation, Type A mishap, calling it "nearly catastrophic" - forced the agency to err on the side of safety. It kept the astronauts on board and sent Starliner home without them. They ended up flying home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon nearly 10 months after they arrived.

"Since 2020, Boeing's flight tests have uncovered numerous unexpected issues resulting in an additional six years of delays," the audit states. "The helium leaks and propulsion systems failures remain unresolved as of March 2026, and NASA is uncertain as to when this testing will be completed or human-rating certification for the Starliner will be obtained."

Fallout from the mission includes NASA adjusting Boeing's original contract, switching up its next flight to be uncrewed to make sure the leak and thruster issues are fixed without risking human passengers. Only then could the spacecraft get certification, and then Boeing only has contracts for three crew rotational flights.

The original contract awarded in 2014 for $4.2 billion called for Boeing to fly at least six such missions on top of its uncrewed and crewed flight demonstrations.

Instead, SpaceX, which was also originally awarded six operational flights, but for only $2.6 billion, gained certification for Crew Dragon in 2020 and has since flown 12 operational missions for NASA with at least three more under contract, with Crew-13 slated for as early as September.

To date, NASA has spent just shy of $10 billion on the program, with Boeing's restructured contract having dropped in value to $3.7 billion. SpaceX with its added missions has grown its contract to $4.9 billion, with NASA spending an additional $1.1 billion in related expenditures to the two spacecrafts' development.

Of note, NASA relied on Roscosmos to ferry astronauts to the station on Soyuz spacecraft between the end of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011 until Space Crew Dragon flights began operational missions in November 2020. From 2006 to 2024, NASA purchased 68 Soyuz seats worth more than $3.6 billion, although some of those have been seat tradeoffs with Roscosmos cosmonauts flying on Dragon missions as well.

The Soyuz seat costs averaged about $53 billion, although the costs increased to about $90 million in the last decade.

The general cost, according to the audit, of a commercial crew trip, which has four seats, is more than $300 million, which is about $75 million per seat.

The audit, though, points out that by allowing Boeing one of its four contracted flights to be uncrewed, that means NASA will have to pay someone for at least one more mission.

As of right now, with three contracted SpaceX flights and three potential crewed Boeing flights, that will only support NASA commercial crew missions, at six months each, with launches through spring 2029.

"Given that the planned deorbit of the station is likely to occur toward the end of 2030, NASA will need to procure at least three additional flights to crew the station, including the replacement of Starliner-1, a post-certification mission that will not support a crew rotation to the ISS," the audit states.

The option remains to drop Starliner completely and rely solely on SpaceX, but that would give up millions already invested with Boeing, including money fronted through Starliner-3, and require a new contract with SpaceX.

"It is less expensive for NASA to continue with Boeing's two post-certification missions that could be crewed - Starliner-2 and Starliner-3 - rather than contracting two new flights with SpaceX, because the Agency has already paid a large portion of those flight costs to Boeing," the audit stated.

No significant funds have been put toward Starliner-4, which would be the last of Boeing's contracted missions.

The audit also noted that because NASA had to speed up SpaceX missions to be readier faster than planned, it has cost the agency an extra $17 million. This is for accelerating readiness for Crew-13, launching this fall and Crew-14 launching next spring.

"NASA may have been able to avoid the additional costs of the accelerated flights had the Agency informed SpaceX to prepare its flights earlier. At the time, however, NASA was confident Boeing could meet its scheduled launch dates and thus delayed its decision to employ SpaceX flights," the audit stated.

The audit also called out NASA for paying Boeing early for mission preparation, something the agency was criticized for in previous audits, including giving funding for missions before the spacecraft had been certified. That included $43 million for Starliner-3 given back in 2019.

NASA has since given more.

"We question an additional $127.9 million NASA has spent since 2019 on milestone payments to Boeing for Starliner-3, a flight that is far from certain," the audit reads.

From Boeing's standpoint, the company has taken more than $2 billion in losses in developing Starliner since 2016, but still stands to cash in on what remains of the $3.7 billion in the contract.

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This story was originally published July 6, 2026 at 2:49 PM.