Boeing eyes exiting space race by selling business to NASA: report

Houston, Boeing has a problem!

The aerospace giant — which helped put the first man on the moon — is exploring selling part of its NASA business, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The sale, which is in the early stages and may not result in a deal, would include operations supporting Boeing's troubled Starliner rocket and the International Space Station, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

A Boeing spokeswoman told The Post the company does not comment on estimates.

New Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg's potential exit from the space race comes as Boeing faces financial pressure from a five-week strike that has grounded production.

The space company's Starliner spacecraft has been plagued by development delays and technical problems for years, costing the private sector more than $1.8 billion.

Two NASA astronauts brought to the International Space Station by Boeing remain stuck there and are scheduled to return in February on a craft from rival SpaceX.

The sale of Boeing's space business would be a sharp change from the company's time in space – from working on Saturn V rockets to land men on the moon to building the International Space Station, which has been in orbit for 25 years.

Boeing will likely retain its position overseeing the Space Launch System, a large rocket NASA is paying the company to build for future lunar missions, sources told the Journal.

The giant rocket successfully completed its first flight nearly two years ago, but Boeing has since faced quality-control issues with the system.

Boeing and Lockheed Martin have been searching for more than a year for a buyer for the United Launch Alliance, the companies' joint rocket-launch venture.

Ortberg, who took the helm of Boeing in August and previously led aviation company Rockwell Collins, said selling everything but the core commercial and defense businesses was on the table.

“We're better off doing better than doing less and not doing better,” Ortberg said during a call with analysts this week.

In September, Ortberg fired the head of Boeing's defense and aerospace business.

The company's aerospace business posted a loss of $3.1 billion on revenue of $18.5 billion in the first nine months of this year.

Before Ortberg joined the company, Boeing talked to Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin about having the private space company take over some of Boeing's NASA programs, sources told the Journal.

Boeing remains in hot water as NASA says it wants to de-orbit the space station by 2030 and the future of Starliner remains a question mark.

Agency officials had hoped that Starliner would be a means of transportation to bring astronauts back and forth from the space station, but safety concerns made that reality uncertain.