Boeing reportedly eyes exiting space race by selling off business with NASA
Houston, Boeing has a problem!
The embattled aerospace giant — which helped put the first man on the moon — is exploring the sale of some parts of its NASA business, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The sale, which is in the early stages and might not result in a deal, would include Boeing’s problematic Starliner rocket and operations that support the International Space Station, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
A Boeing spokesperson told The Post the company does not comment on speculation.
The possible exit from the space race by new Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg comes as Boeing faces financial crisis from a five-week strike that has ground production to a halt.
The aerospace company’s Starliner spacecraft has been hindered for years by development delays and technical problems, with more than $1.8 billion in private cost overruns.
Two NASA astronauts that Boeing brought to the International Space Station remain stuck there and are scheduled to return in February on a craft from rival SpaceX.
The sale of Boeing’s space business would be a sharp turnaround from the company’s space heydays – from working on the Saturn V rockets used to land man on the moon to building the International Space Station, which has been in orbit for 25 years.
Boeing will likely maintain its position overseeing the Space Launch System, a large rocket NASA is paying the company to build for future lunar missions, sources told the Journal.
The huge rocket successfully completed its first flight about two years ago, but Boeing has since faced quality-control issues with the system.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin have been searching for more than a year for a buyer for United Launch Alliance, the companies’ joint rocket-launch venture.
Ortberg, who took the helm at Boeing in August and previously led aviation company Rockwell Collins, has said basically everything except the core commercial and defense businesses is on the table to be sold.
“We’re better off doing less and doing it better than doing more and not doing it well,” Ortberg said this week during a call with analysts.
In September, Ortberg fired the head of Boeing’s defense and space business.
The company’s space business suffered a $3.1 billion loss on $18.5 billion in revenue in the first nine months of this year.
Prior to Ortberg joining the company, Boeing had been in talks with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to have the private space company take over some of Boeing’s NASA programs, sources told the Journal.
Boeing remains in hot water as NASA has said it wants to de-orbit the space station by around 2030 and Starliner’s future remains a question mark.
Agency officials had hoped the Starliner would be a mode of transportation to bring astronauts back and forth from the space station, but safety concerns have made that reality uncertain.
