S8 Ep836: 3/3: Preview for Later Today: Bob Zimmerman explores financial hurdles facing Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, including negotiations with NASA regarding contract structures and the potential cancellation of future demonstration flights.
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2026
⏱️ 1 minutes
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Summary
FEBRUARY 1930
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is John Batchel, speaking to colleague Bob Zimmerman about Starliner, the troubled spacecraft from Boeing. |
| 0:09.0 | Troubled to the point of it might be going away. |
| 0:12.9 | Bob and I identify its money. It's always money. It should be. |
| 0:17.4 | They're a profit-making organization with stakeholders, investors. Why? It has to do with |
| 0:26.3 | a government contract called Cost Plus. Bob will explain. No Starliner, maybe. Too expensive, |
| 0:34.1 | maybe. Boeing troubled, maybe. More of this tonight. That's part of the problem. |
| 0:40.4 | Boeing apparently does not want to pay for an additional demo flight on the fixed price contract. |
| 0:46.1 | NASA has considered, well, we'll do a cargo mission. We could pay you for cargo. It would be a |
| 0:51.2 | separate additional mission. But there might be issues here within the administration. |
| 0:56.9 | Isaacman himself might be very reluctant to spend that extra money. |
| 1:00.8 | He has better things to do with his money, I think. |
| 1:03.3 | So there's arguments going on here and maybe negotiations. |
| 1:06.6 | We'll have to wait and see. |
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