- Starship is still in the development phase and yet to carry out an end-to-end orbital flight.
- NASA administrator Jared Isaacman is now expected to meet with the companies working on the Artemis program on Tuesday, the report said.
- NASA’s Artemis program is aimed at taking humans back to the Moon for the first time after the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
Space agency NASA is reportedly considering reducing the role of Boeing Co. (BA) in its mission to land humans back on the surface of the Moon after more than half a century.
The agency is instead considering SpaceX’s Starship rocket for the purpose of propelling astronauts to lunar orbit during the Artemis 4 mission, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Boeing shares traded 2% lower at the time of writing.
Changing Plans
Originally, Boeing’s Space Launch System rocket was slated to launch a crew of four riding inside the Lockheed Martin Corp.-built Orion crew capsule to the Moon’s orbit where a Starship lander would dock with the capsule, allowing for astronauts to descend on the Moon’s surface.
Bloomberg reported that NASA is now considering that Starship and Orion would dock in Earth orbit, giving the SpaceX rocket the job of propelling the capsule to the moon’s orbit instead of Boeing’s Space Launch System as part of the Artemis program. SLS might still be used to launch Orion into Earth’s orbit, sources told Bloomberg.
However, Starship is still in the development phase and yet to carry out an end-to-end orbital flight.
Isaacman To Meet Key Artemis Names
The report also noted that NASA administrator Jared Isaacman is now expected to meet with the companies working on the Artemis program, aimed at returning humans to the surface of the Moon, on Tuesday. Isaacman, a close ally of SpaceX CEO and billionaire Elon Musk, intends to meet Blue Origin LLC, Boeing and also SpaceX, to discuss their progress and the latest plans at the agency, the report said.
The report also noted that the change in plan for moon landing is part of NASA’s attempts to accelerate the Artemis program aimed at taking humans back to the Moon for the first time after the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The program has been haunted by delays and cost overruns alike.
How Did Stocktwits Users React?
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around BA stock stayed within the ‘bullish’ territory over the past 24 hours while message volume remained at ‘high’ levels.
Meanwhile, sentiment around SPACEX stayed within ‘neutral’ territory, accompanied by ‘extremely high’ message volume.
BA stock has gained 17% over the past 12 months.
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