As Boeing’s problems with its troubled Starliner spacecraft continue, the space giant’s contributions to NASA’s efforts to return astronauts to the moon are also significantly behind schedule and far over budget.

Boeing has been tasked with developing a powerful new upper stage for NASA’s Space Launch System, the giant rocket the agency plans to use to fly to the moon. The configuration, known as Block 1B, is set to make its debut during NASA’s Artemis IV mission, the second planned lunar landing, tentatively scheduled for 2028.

But according to a new, damning report from NASA’s inspector general, the rocket stage could be one of many reasons the agency ultimately has to postpone the mission.

“We identified a number of issues that could affect the readiness of SLS Block 1B for Artemis IV, including Boeing’s inadequate quality management system, increasing costs and schedules, and insufficient transparency regarding the expected costs of Block 1B,” the report said.

Given that the troubled company is still reeling from the disaster that stranded two NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station due to a leaky spacecraft – not to mention the years of controversy surrounding its passenger aircraft business – the report is far from reassuring and instead points to systemic problems affecting the company’s operations.

Particularly tongue-in-cheek are a series of “corrective action requests,” or changes that the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) – a federal agency that manages contracts for the Pentagon – demands when “quality deficiencies” are identified. According to the inspector general’s report, the DCMA made 71 requests to Boeing, as well as one particularly serious higher-level request.

“According to DCMA officials, this is a high number of CARs for a space system at this stage of development and reflects a recurring and deteriorating state of product quality control,” the report said. “Boeing’s process for correcting defects has been ineffective to date, and the company has generally been unresponsive in taking corrective action when the same quality control issues have reoccurred.”

These quality control problems, which Boeing is suffering from particularly at its Michoud assembly plant in New Orleans, are “primarily due to the lack of sufficiently trained and experienced aerospace workers at Boeing,” the inspector general found.

Boeing’s training and work efforts to correct the situation were “inadequate,” resulting in defects such as “welds that did not meet NASA specifications.”

“The shortage of trained and skilled workers increases the risk that Boeing will continue to manufacture parts and components that do not meet NASA requirements and industry standards,” the report said.

The upper stage – originally scheduled for delivery to NASA in 2021 but now delayed to April 2027 – is also $700 million over budget, which could delay Artemis IV’s launch date.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Boeing has repeatedly come under fire for sloppy workmanship in the manufacture of its passenger aircraft. This culminated earlier this year in a “door stopper” that flew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 jet.

Since then, regulators have been scrutinizing the data, finding evidence of everything from overwritten surveillance footage to missing repair records.

Since then, several whistleblowers have come forward, claiming that the company’s work culture leads to hectic work, low safety standards and frequent conflicts between the manufacturer and its suppliers.

Earlier this week, representatives of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sharply attacked Boeing and its supplier Spirit AeroSystems during a hearing, accusing them of hiring untrained workers and thus causing chaos in the factories.

And according to the latest report from NASA’s inspector general, such problems extend well beyond Boeing’s passenger jet business and also affect the agency’s ambitious plans to return astronauts to the moon.

Worse still, Ars-Technica points out that NASA’s Space Launch System has long proven to be an extremely expensive option for getting its Orion spacecraft to the moon. While SpaceX has yet to send a crew into space on its Starship spacecraft, the company is making significant progress. Even Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is nearing a test launch of its massive New Glenn rocket.

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