Boeing’s space business may be up for sale amid Blue Origin talks

This could include the company’s Starliner space taxi program and operations related to the International Space Station, but would not include NASA’s massive Space Launch System rocket, the report said.

Such considerations occurred even before Kelly Ortberg took over as CEO in August. the magazine Before he came on board, Boeing had discussions with Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company Blue Origin about acquiring some NASA programs, he said.

A Boeing spokesman said luck The company does not comment on market rumors or speculation. Blue Origin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The news comes days after Boeing announced third-quarter results that showed a loss of $6 billion, as its commercial aircraft unit was hampered by an ongoing strike, with workers rejecting the latest offer.

In addition, mishaps involving Boeing passenger planes earlier this year have put the company’s production processes and work culture under increasing scrutiny, placing increased pressure on its business division.

During Ortberg’s first earnings conference call as CEO on Wednesday, he pledged to make the company innovative again, but also suggested it would take a hard look at units outside its core commercial and defense businesses.

“It is better for us to do less and do it better than to do more and not do it well,” he told analysts. “What do we want this company to look like five or ten years from now? And do these things add value to the company or distract us?”

Boeing’s long space legacy includes the famous Saturn V rocket that transported astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program as well as the Space Shuttle. It is also the prime contractor for the space station.

But its Starliner program suffered a major setback earlier this year, when a crewed test flight carried two astronauts to the space station but left them stranded there due to a malfunction in the capsule.

In August, NASA said it would return astronauts to Earth on a SpaceX mission in February 2025, bringing the total time astronauts will spend in space to eight months, if all goes according to plan.

Meanwhile, SpaceX has been ferrying astronauts to and from the space station for years as the other contractor under NASA’s space taxi program. Elon Musk’s company has also emerged as a top launch services provider for the US military, other governments and companies around the world.

SpaceX’s latest triumph was a test flight of its giant Starship rocket that saw its super-heavy booster land on the launch pad earlier this month.

By contrast, Boeing was a laggard in the Starliner space taxi as well as the Space Launch System rocket, which was designed for deep space missions. Despite its successful pilot launch in 2022, it has been plagued by delays and cost overruns.

For its part, NASA said that it is far from “writing off Boeing” as a space partner, and expressed its continued confidence in the company.

In August, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said he was 100 percent sure Boeing would launch another crewed Starliner mission in the future, citing the working relationship between NASA and the company.