Boeing Gets A Chance To Restore Its Space Credibility: WSJ

NASA's planned test launch of a new mega-rocket on Monday provides Boeing Co. BA with the opportunity to demonstrate that it can execute significant national projects after previous failures, writes Wall Street Journal.

 "We're providing both the brains and muscle to make the next generation of human spaceflight possible," Boeing stated on its website.

Boeing is the largest contractor on NASA's Space Launch System, a 38-story-tall rocket that will launch the unmanned Orion spacecraft toward the moon and launch American astronauts in 2025 as part of NASA's Artemis missions to explore space.

With the recent struggles with Boeing's space business, a successful SLS launch will help Boeing restore its reputation.

"The SLS is just another opportunity for us to show how well Boeing can do space," stated John Shannon, a Boeing vice president who oversees the SLS program for the company.

"This vehicle can do something that no other vehicle can do, and we haven't had a rocket like this in 50 years."

"We need Boeing to get this right," said Scott Pace, a former NASA official who is director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. "There's a long history in recent years of Boeing's technical problems, which they're trying to fix—I sure hope they do, because it's a national asset, and it needs to work."

The missions could lay the groundwork for a possible future lunar base and an eventual operation to Mars, according to plans NASA has laid out under Artemis.

Price Action: BA shares are trading lower by 1.54% at $162 during the premarket session on Monday.

Photo via NASA Flickr