Former science reporter at The Washington Post and elsewhere. Disabled by complex chronic post-viral illness. Living on #Kauai#Hawaii. Grew up in Wisconsin. Occasional SCUBA diver.
The contract #Boeing got for a new spaceship was fixed-price, and worth much more than SpaceX got for the same job. Boeing has for decades gotten fat off of cost-plus contracts, meaning they could bloat the project until shareholders were fat & happy & DOD just kept paying them.
One fixed-price contract & they turn into helpless marshmallows.
