NASA might certify the Boeing Starliner to fly crew rotational missions to the ISS despite last year's failed test flight

Boeing has lost more than $2 billion and counting on its Starliner spacecraft after a rough year in which the capsule’s first astronaut flight turned into a headache for NASA.

Boeing lost roughly $489 million on the Starliner in 2019 in an especially difficult time for the program. But even as COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the economy the company reigned in expenses. Its annual losses never came anywhere near its 2019 peak until now. (Boeing lost $288 million in 2023.)

Boeing announced Monday it lost $523 million on the Starliner crew capsule program last year, putting the aerospace company $2 billion in the red on its NASA commercial crew contract since late 2019.

According to a new quarterly filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Boeing, the aerospace titan’s Starliner spaceflight program has now topped $2 billion in losses.

Boeing (NYSE:BA) recorded its biggest annual reach-forward loss related to its Starliner program spacecraft in 2024, and has lost more than $2B since it first secured the nearly $5B fixed-price contract from NASA to develop the spacecraft.