NASA loses money and time waiting and helping Boeing to perform. And then they get minimal performance, given the program and company's now chronic underperformance.
Meanwhile, SpaceX provides a solid tested path forward. Despite the single sourcing.
I see a negotiated retreat, favorable to all parties. Likely in some incremental way to minimize attention and backlash. I.e. delay, study, delay, negotiate, delay, close up shop.
Parterships operating under a legal gun don't really operate. And are not conducive to safety concerns.
> Parterships operating under a legal gun don't really operate.
It's business, nothing personal, right? Boeing can be welcome to bid on the next project - after siphoning and wasting lots of NASA's money on this one, and losing badly a solid chunk of its own because of internal problems. Why can't partnership continue?
Nobody wants Boeing to go out of business, just to pay what they owe to taxpayers.
When a long term business partnership becomes unattractive for one side, the lack of win-win degrades the relationship for both parties.
It causes conflict between mutually valid but now competing priorities (profitability vs. contracted deliverables), demoralization, delays for analysis and consensus building around unpleasant decisions, key people moving on to better contexts, etc.
I am not talking about bad faith.
The primal cause could be failure by one party. But it could also be a market change, critical supplier loss, or other unrecognized reality surfacing.
If Boeing and NASA cut losses on Starliner, they could still work together in the future. Presumably, with both sides doing a better job of understanding their respective and joint risks.
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Never mistake a good partnership contract, with a good partnership. More than a good contract has to come together for the latter.
And it is wise to have pre-settled terms for unwinding contracts at any time by either parties discretion, to reduce the time to correct a bad situation, and minimize the costs of mishaps and distractions for everyone.
It's possible Boeing may be forced to subcontract part of the work to SpaceX, but looking like they are trying to find a buyer for the JV itself which would relieve Boeing but saddle the buyer with the troubled contract
Meanwhile, SpaceX provides a solid tested path forward. Despite the single sourcing.
I see a negotiated retreat, favorable to all parties. Likely in some incremental way to minimize attention and backlash. I.e. delay, study, delay, negotiate, delay, close up shop.
Parterships operating under a legal gun don't really operate. And are not conducive to safety concerns.