Orlando, Florida – NASA's Inspector General's office issued a severe Wednesday morning audit of Boeing and the space agency. It details Boeing's delays and billions of dollars in cost overruns in building the key components of a next-generation rocket for the Moon and Mars missions.

The report also accused NASA of being too generous in its Boeing assessments, which resulted in dubious payments.

As part of a contract with NASA, Boeing is building two of the main stages of the Space Launch System, a heavy-lift rocket that will carry the Orion probe that will take astronauts into deep space. The rocket components will be assembled and tested at the Kennedy Space Center, before launching from Space Coast, Florida.

But the project is late and well over budget, according to the BIG report, partly because of "Boeing's poor performance".

"With $ 5.3 billion spent in July 2018, NASA expects Boeing to exhaust the current value of the contract by the beginning of 2019, nearly three years before the end of the contract. and without providing a single central stadium or (higher stage of exploration), "said Ridge Bowman, director of NASA's BIG.

At the current rate, the report revealed that Boeing would spend at least $ 8.9 billion by 2021 – "double the amount originally forecast – while the delivery of the first basic phase has dropped by 21 years and a half from June 2017 to December 2019 and may fall further. "

During a call to reporters last week, John Shannon, Vice President and Program Director of Boeing Space Launch System, said the project was on track to deliver the first key stage of the rocket to the Center. Kennedy Space by the end of the year. be integrated with other components.

The report challenged this estimate, however, claiming that Boeing would need a $ 1.2 billion injection via a renegotiated NASA contract to reach its goal of delivering to Space Coast in December 2019, and then stealing money. Test in June 2020.

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