Boeing, Northrop face obstacles in commercializing flagship US rocket

Nasa's plans to turn over its flagship rocket to contractors Boeing and Northrop Grumman to find more buyers and bring down costs faces steep hurdles thanks to meager demand even from the Pentagon and a sprawling supplier network...

The U.S. space agency is pushing ahead with plans to hand ownership of the Space Launch System (SLS) to a Boeing-Northrup joint venture in the next few years, with a goal of cutting in half the rocket's price tag - estimated at $2 billion..

The Space Force's Pentecost said Boeing has been in talks with U.S. defense officials to explore offering SLS in the Pentagon's Phase 3 National Security Space Launch competition - a procurement program expected to buy billions of dollars in launches from multiple companies..

Nasa wants one SLS rocket produced annually for Artemis and plans to buy four SLS launches from Deep Space Transport, the Boeing-Northrup joint venture, after the fifth mission..

Convincing about 400 suppliers across 46 U.S. states, already struggling with rising labor costs, to increase production and staffing would be another issue, according to Amit Kshatriya, the head of Nasa's new Moon to Mars office, formed in March to manage the agency's Artemis and SLS strategy...

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