Boeing is preparing for the possible closure of NASA's SLS rocket program

The main contractor of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, Boeing, is preparing for the possibility that NASA may terminate the long-term program, Ars Technica reports, UNN writes.

Details

On Friday, David Dutcher, Boeing's vice president and SLS program manager, called a town hall meeting with less than an hour's notice for the roughly 800 employees working on the program. The scheduled meeting lasted six minutes, during which time Dutcher did not answer questions.

Dutcher said that Boeing's rocket contracts could be completed in March and the company is preparing for possible layoffs if NASA decides not to renew them. One participant described Dutcher's behavior as "cold and boilerplate.

"To accommodate changes in the Artemis program and cost expectations, today we informed our Space Launch Systems team of the possibility of reducing approximately 400 positions by April 2025," said a Boeing spokesperson. - "This requires 60 days' notice of involuntary layoffs for affected employees under the WARN Act. "We are working with our customer and looking for opportunities to redeploy employees across our company to minimize job losses and retain our talented colleagues.

The meeting on Friday, as the newspaper notes, indicates that Boeing executives believe that there is at least a possibility that the Trump White House will propose to end the use of the SLS rocket as part of its budget proposal in March.

The timing of Friday's meeting coincides with the expected release of President Trump's budget proposal for fiscal year 2026. However, Congress is not obliged to follow Trump's budget recommendations.

According to numerous sources, the White House and NASA leadership, including Acting Administrator Janet Petro, are debating the future of the SLS rocket and the Artemis Moon program. Proponents of commercial space exploration insist on a complete cancellation. Petro is calling on the White House to allow NASA to continue the Artemis II and Artemis III missions using the original version of the SLS before terminating the program.

Critics argue that the rocket is expensive - each launch exceeds $2 billion, not including payloads and ground systems - and therefore the program should be canceled. They argue that keeping the SLS for the first lunar landing will slow down progress.

Addendum

The US Congress, together with the top management of NASA, commissioned the space agency to develop the SLS rocket in 2011. Initially scheduled to launch by the end of 2016, the SLS did not debut until 2022.

NASA allocated about $3 billion a year to develop the rocket and its ground systems. By handing out contracts to Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Aerojet, and other contractors, the government rocketry enterprise was replaced by private industry. Over the past decade, SpaceX has developed two heavy rockets, and Blue Origin has just launched its own New Glenn launch vehicle. Each of these rockets is at least partially reusable and flies for less than one-tenth the cost of an SLS rocket.