Overview: Boeing's Afterthought

Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg, beginning the company’s earnings call after a brutal third quarter of setbacks and losses, said something that’s really stuck with me:

“While we're somewhat consumed with the challenges of today, we need to be setting the foundation of the future for Boeing.”

“Boeing is an airplane company.”

Understandably, after a more than $6 billion third-quarter loss, Ortberg wants his company to rebuild around its “core” businesses, which he named as commercial aircraft and key defense products.?

Unfortunately, Boeing's space portfolio still has a lot going on right now. It's the portfolio with the dysfunctional capsule, disintegrating satellites, retiring space station, “wasteful” moon rocket, and the small satellite subsidiary that just had its leader poached. At least its twin top secret X-37B spaceplanes keep cooking .

Starliner is the most high profile of the lot. Since last we totaled the losses , Boeing has eaten roughly $406 million more on the program – bringing Starliner to $1.9 billion in the hole.?

NASA already made the call to fly its 2025 crews with SpaceX. The agency aspirationally sees Starliner flying next in 2025.

But it’s probably safe to say that Boeing has another year’s worth of losses before the capsule launches again. And those losses generally run about $300 million annually.

Beyond the issue of when it launches, whether Starliner will have a repeat crew flight test or something else is still unclear.

Ortberg, who earlier this week visited Boeing’s space facilities down at the Cape, yesterday stressed that the Starliner team needs “to improve our systems engineering and our design capability so that never happens again.”?

Then there’s Boeing’s Satellites division, recently thrown into turmoil after the IS-33e spacecraft disintegrated, with reports of more than 50 pieces of debris in orbit. Intelsat declared it a “total loss” and is examining with Boeing why the manufacturer’s 702MP spacecraft ripped apart. It’s the worst kind of midlife crisis, given IS-33e is barely halfway through its planned 15-year mission.?

My colleague Phil LeBeau asked Ortberg point blank whether Boeing is considering spinning off parts of its defense or space business. The CEO dodged, saying “not specifically,” but did confirm that Boeing is going through its full portfolio to identify where “streamlining” needs to happen.

I’m not sure which pieces of Boeing’s space portfolio it divests, or frankly how — but reading both between and the lines themselves, it seems more of an inevitability given the state of the broader company. It doesn’t seem so long ago that Boeing leadership was saying the company would beat SpaceX to Mars. Today, Boeing just needs to stop beating up itself.

WHAT'S UP

• NASA releases 2023 economic impact report, which found the agency generated about $76 billion across the U.S. – NASA
• U.S. and Chinese officials discussing moon rock samples, after China’s Chang'e-6 mission retrieved lunar surface material. NASA says China has agreed to provide access to the samples, in a rare collaboration of the countries’ space programs. – Reuters
• SpaceX launches 100th successful Falcon 9 flight of the year, as the company's blistering cadence continues despite a trio of brief groundings this summer. – SpaceX
• Florida’s Space Coast to break annual launch record two months early, expecting to top the previous high watermark of 72 launches by the end of this month. After topping a decades-long-standing record of 29 launches in 2020, SpaceX has led the region to new annual records each year since. – Florida Today
• U.S., Europe and Japan are adding thousands of space jobs, with Space Foundation’s Q3 report noting that the three regions together increased their space workforces by a combined 26,000 people over the past two years — more than quadruple the prior two years. Additionally, in the U.S., the Space Force is surpassing its annual recruiting goals, unlike other military branches that missed quotes last year and have had mixed results this one. – Space Foundation
• Presidential election has implications for federal space budgets, as both candidates have had direct involvement in the industry. A potential pivot for NASA from the moon to Mars is seen as more likely under another Donald Trump administration, while National Space Council chair Kamala Harris has overseen a broad continuation of the status quo. – Bloomberg
• GAO reports that NASA ground infrastructure may delay Artemis 2 launch, as the previous “three months of schedule margin” with the Exploration Ground Systems program has been eroded. The Artemis 1 launch was more damaging to ground systems than expected, making a launch by next September increasingly unlikely. – GAO
• Blue Origin debuts new New Shepard rocket and capsule: The NS-27 cargo flight, carrying 12 science and research payloads, sent the capsule to a maximum altitude of 102 kilometers MSL (Mean Sea Level), or about 336,000 feet, after which both the booster and capsule landed safely. – Blue Origin
• Cyprus signs Artemis Accords, the 46th country to sign the U.S.-led international space agreement. – NASA
• Comtech is going all in on satellite, planning to divest its terrestrial connectivity business and focus on space communications. – Via Satellite
• NASA plans to make Mars sample return decision by year end as the agency examines eight industry studies. Former NASA head Jim Bridenstine is leading the Mars sample independent review team. – SpaceNews
• Italian small satellite manufacturer Argotec opens new facility in Turin featuring over 120,000 square feet of space that is designed to produce up to one satellite per week. – SpaceNews
• IAC’s Milan gathering sees record 11,200 attendees from 120 countries, with the annual International Astronautical Congress calling it “one of the most diverse gatherings of space people in our galaxy.” – IAF
• Blue Origin finishes installing engines on New Glenn, strapping on 7 of its BE-4 engines, as the company prepares for the rocket’s inaugural first launch. – Dave Limp

INDUSTRY MANEUVERS

• Northrop Grumman wins $1.8 billion Space Force contract extension, to begin production of two missile detection satellites as part of the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) program. The modification brings Northrop Grumman’s total contract value for the project to $4.1 billion. – Department of Defense
• Space Force orders 9 launches from SpaceX for $733.6 million, for missions on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket at an average cost of $81.5 million per launch. – SSC
• Boeing’s Millennium wins $386 million Space Force award for six Epoch 1 missile defense satellites, for delivery by the end of fiscal year 2026. – SSC
• Telesat orders 127 gateway antennas from Intellian for the Canadian satellite communication company’s upcoming Lightspeed constellation. – Intellian
• Space Force’s SDA adds 19 companies to prototype demo program called Hybrid Acquisition for proliferated Low-earth Orbit (HALO), with a focus on rapidly awarding missions for demonstration and experiments. The SDA’s initial agreements are worth $20,000, with companies to then compete for future HALO orders. The companies included are Airbus, Apex, AST SpaceMobile, Astro Digital, Capella, CesiumAstro, Firefly, Geneva Technologies, Impulse, Kepler, Amazon’s Kuiper, LeoStella, Momentus, Muon, NovaWurks, SpaceX, Turion, Terran Orbital, and York. – SDA
• Astra awarded DIU development contract, worth “up to $44 million,” with the goal of launching the company’s Rocket 4 system “to orbit or suborbit and from the US, Australia, or other locations.” – Astra
• OneWeb teams up with Iridium, adding the latter’s Certus connectivity as well as PNT (positioning, navigation and timing) services to the broader Eutelsat product offering of government services. – Eutelsat

MARKET MOVERS

• KeyBanc ups Rocket Lab price target to $12, from $11, “to reflect better appreciation of the business amid recent secular momentum,” according to a research note to clients. Rocket Lab stock recently crossed above $11 a share, having doubled this year and recovering to go beyond its post-SPAC debut price. – KeyBanc
• Lockheed Martin’s space sales were just about flat in Q3, as the company reported $3.08 billion in sales, down from $3.1 billion in sales a year ago. The unit’s operating profit only marginally improved as well, up to $272 million from $259 million. The company noted it saw lower volume on its Orion capsule program and just $5 million in equity earnings from its ULA ownership. – Lockheed Martin
• Northrop Grumman’s space unit sees Q3 sales slip but profit climb, with the defense giant reporting $2.9 billion in sales, down 3% year-over-year, but operating income of $345 million, up 14% from a year ago. – Northrop Grumman

BOLDLY GOING

• Ken Venner joins hypersonic startup Hermeus as COO, coming to the company after previously serving as CIO of Sierra Space and SpaceX. – Hermeus
• Natalie Amir named MDA’s VP of business development, joining the Canadian spacecraft and robotics company after previously serving in similar sales roles at Aerojet Rocketdyne and SpaceX. – Amir

ON THE HORIZON

• Oct. 25: SpaceX splashes down Crew-8 mission for NASA in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Oct. 26: SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Starlink mission from Florida.
• Oct. 29: Terran Orbital shareholder vote on Lockheed acquisition.
• Oct. 29: SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Starlink mission from California.
• Oct. 30: SpaceX Falcon 9 launches Starlink mission from Florida.

Subscribe and get CNBC's Investing in Space directly to your inbox!