Aviation company Boeing is weighing options for the future of its troubled Starliner space capsule program as part of a broad portfolio review under new CEO Kelly Ortberg, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The assessment is at an early stage and no decision on divestment from the Starliner program has been made, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public information. The company could decide to maintain the business.
Boeing is not currently seeking to sell its broader space operations or release NASA contracts relating to the International Space Station and the Space Launch System, the massive rocket intended to take American astronauts back to the Moon.
By email, a company spokesperson said that Boeing does not comment on market rumors or speculation.
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Selling Starliner would free Boeing from a deeply troubled program that has already racked up costs in excess of $1.8 billion. This figure includes the $250 million spent in the third quarter of this year following a botched flight test that left two Americans stranded on the Space Station for months.
The Starliner overhaul comes as Ortberg works to end a six-week labor strike that has halted production of major jet planes, including its main source of revenue, the 737 Max.
The work stoppage highlights the company’s financial challenges, whose credit rating is about to become rubbish and the worsening of cash burn which, according to the company, will last until 2025.
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Boeing’s CEO said he wants to focus resources on defense and commercial aircraft divisions and seeks to simplify his broad portfolio. Ortberg has begun a review of the company’s business that he hopes to complete by the end of the year, he said earlier this week.
“It’s better for us to do less and do it better than to do more and not do it well,” Ortberg said on Boeing’s Oct. 23 earnings call.
Even before the latest setback, Starliner’s future wasn’t evident beyond a half-dozen missions to the International Space Station. And as Starliner has suffered multiple delays, SpaceX’s rival Crew Dragon capsule has made 43 visits to the space station since 2019, carrying crew and cargo for NASA.
A move away from its space business would mark a major change for a company that has been an integral part of the United States’ history of exploration beyond the atmosphere. Boeing’s lineage extends more than 50 years to the Saturn V, which sent men to the Moon for the first time, and today includes building satellites, the X-37B clandestine space plane, the SLS moon rocket and management of the ISS .
However, over the past decade, Boeing has lagged far behind the great technological leaps made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and other “new space” companies that have championed reusable rocket technology. The space station is on the verge of retirement, and Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. have also been looking for a buyer for their United Launch Alliance joint venture for the past year.
