New Boeing CEO May Clean House With Sale Of Space Unit

Boeing is unlikely to recover from its botched Starliner spacecraft mission to the International Space Station this past summer, leaving two astronauts stranded on the ISS that Elon Musk’s SpaceX has to rescue with a Crew Dragon spacecraft early next year. 

On Friday afternoon, a new Wall Street Journal report revealed that Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, has mulled over selling its NASA business, including the unit that manages the Starliner. 

The effort, part of a strategy by Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg to streamline the company and stem its financial losses, is at an early stage and may not result in a deal.

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Boeing is expected to keep its position overseeing the Space Launch System, some of the people said. The SLS is a huge rocket NASA is paying the company to build to start future lunar-exploration missions.

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Before Ortberg joined, Boeing held discussions with Blue Origin, the space company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, about taking over some of the NASA programs, people familiar with those discussions said. Blue Origin has been preparing its own rockets for future NASA and commercial missions and to compete with SpaceX. -WSJ 

Boeing’s mounting problems include starliner malfunctions in space this summer – the spacecraft returned to Earth without crew in early September. Also, two of its 737 Max jets crashed in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. Earlier this year, a door plug ripped off a Max jet.

It’s remarkable that Boeing received $4.2 billion to develop Starliner, while SpaceX was awarded just $2.6 billion to create Crew Dragon over a decade ago. Despite a much smaller contract, Musk and SpaceX achieved what once seemed impossible and now lead the space industry…

Using data from BryceTech, SpaceX launched 525 spacecraft into orbit in the first quarter, far outpacing China and Russia. 

Musk is America’s rocket program: SpaceX launched about 429,125 kg of spacecraft upmass in the first quarter, significantly outpacing China’s rocket program (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation), which launched a measly 29,426 kg. 

Much of this is due to SpaceX’s Starlink deployment in LEO, as thousands of these satellites provide high-speed internet coverage to millions of customers worldwide. 

Just a few weeks ago: 

• French Media Blames SpaceX For 2,500 Airbus Layoffs As Elon Musk Leads Rocket Race

And this. 

Mechazilla has caught the Super Heavy booster! pic.twitter.com/6R5YatSVJX

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 13, 2024

Meanwhile, a five-week strike at Boeing was prolonged earlier this week after the union rejected a new labor contract. 

“We Remain On Strike”: Boeing Union Rejects New Labor Contract https://t.co/iGbEKaQogm

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 24, 2024

WSJ was the first to note Boeing was exploring asset sales on Oct. 20. 

Boeing Explores Asset Sales In Potential Shrinking Of Corporate Footprint https://t.co/IYjOjKjRUq

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 20, 2024

And Boeing has filed a $25 billion shelf registration amid dwindling cash reserves as it must protect its investment grade credit ratings status at all costs. It also reported a net loss of $6.17 billion for the third quarter. 

The military-industrial complex really fumbled the space ball. Now, Musk and SpaceX lead the space race as power shifts into a new class of billionaires.