Boeing, Northrop face obstacles in commercialising flagship US rocket

As a commercial venture, the Space Launch System could face other challenges including competition from cheaper and reusable rockets such as Starship from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and New Glenn from fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. —Reuters

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

The US 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 US$2bil (RM9.2bil). But finding a market for a giant and costly rocket promises to be difficult, with the US Department of Defence (Dod) –seen as a potential customer – signalling little interest.