Boeing’s Starliner was plagued by malfunctions during its first crewed test flight this year. Credit: NASA
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Boeing is exiting the space business — or trying to. As part of a broader plan to reduce and improve corporate holdings and operations, the company is looking to offload its space program, assuming it can find a suitable buyer.
Boeing has been a major contractor for NASA since Apollo, when it built the massive first stage of the Saturn V rockets that launched astronauts to the Moon. These days, his major NASA projects include Starliner, the Space Launch System (SLS), and operations for the International Space Station (ISS). Second The Wall Street JournalBoeing could retain control of SLS if sold.
All of Boeing’s major projects have run into difficulties in recent years.
The Starliner crewed transport vehicle was originally intended to replace the Space Shuttle when that vehicle was retired in 2011. But SpaceX beat them to that goal by four years, flying the first crewed mission from American soil on their Dragon capsule in 2020. Starliner finally launched astronauts to the ISS in June this year, but they suffered helium leaks and thruster malfunctions during launch and docking. In August, NASA decided to recall it to Earth without a crew; astronauts will return on another SpaceX Dragon vehicle next year.
The SLS is NASA’s heavy launch vehicle that will send Artemis crews to the Moon. The rocket – for which Boeing is building the main stage – flew for the first and only time so far in 2022, after originally scheduled to debut in 2016. The delays were caused by engineering problems and accompanied by massive overshoots of costs.
Boeing is responsible for partial operations of the International Space Station, which is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2030 with no apparent successor.
The company has also suffered difficulties in its core aviation business, including years of bad press regarding two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 involving the 737 Max passenger jet; the crashes were caused in part by the erroneous activation of an automated flight control system. And the company’s largest union is currently on strike, and has halted production of ground planes.
In August, Boeing replaced its outgoing CEO David Calhoun with Kelly Ortberg, in a clear attempt to correct course across the company’s various divisions. In an October 23 earnings call, Ortberg left the door open to shedding parts of the company’s portfolio. “Clearly, our core commercial aircraft and defense systems will remain with the Boeing Company for the long haul,” he said. “But there are probably some peripheral things that we can be more efficient at or that distract us from our main focus here.”
Boeing and fellow contractor Lockheed Martin are also co-owners of the United Launch Alliance (ULA), which has coordinated launches for most of NASA’s major missions over the past two decades. That company began considering offers for sale last year.
