NASA tells Boeing it's out of race for station cargo launch contract

Boeing was offering an unmanned version of its Starliner CST-100 space taxi

Cape Canaveral:

US space agency NASA has dumped Boeing Co from a multibillion-dollar competition to fly cargo to the International Space Station, company officials said on Thursday.

Boeing was offering an unmanned version of its Starliner CST-100 space taxi, a passenger spaceship under development as part of a separate NASA programme.

-"We received a letter from NASA and are out of CRS-2,-" Boeing spokeswoman Kelly Kaplan wrote in an email, referring to NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract.

-"I don't think we'll know the 'why' until our debrief with NASA,-" she added.