Boeing exploring sale of space business: report

Boeing is exploring a possible sale of its space business as its new CEO seeks to improve the embattled company's financial position, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The company is weighing a divestiture of its NASA business, including the problem-plagued Starliner vehicle, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Asked for a response, a Boeing spokesperson told AFP the company "doesn't comment on market rumors or speculation."

Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg, who joined Boeing in August, said earlier this week he was reviewing company operations with an eye towards narrowing Boeing's profile.

Boeing is better off "doing less and doing it better than doing more and not doing it well," Ortberg said Wednesday during an earnings conference call with analysts.

Although he did not indicate plans to scale back Boeing's space program, Ortberg pointed to commercial planes and defense as "core" products that "will always stay with the Boeing company."

The statements came after Boeing reported a whopping $6.2 billion loss due in part to the drag from a six-week labor strike in the Seattle region that has shuttered two assembly plants.

Also on Wednesday, the machinist union voted down Boeing's latest contract offer, further clouding the company's prospects.

Boeing has for years worked closely with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), but the company's space program has suffered major setbacks in recent years.

After many delays, Starliner launched in June for what was meant to be a roughly week-long test mission.

But unexpected thruster malfunctions and helium leaks en route to the International Space Station (ISS) derailed those plans, and NASA ultimately decided in September it was safer to bring two astronauts back on a craft operated by SpaceX.