Boeing warns SLS staff that job cuts could be on the way

Overdue, over budget and now... perhaps just over?

Boeing has notified staff that hundreds of jobs could be eliminated if the Artemis program is canceled or heavily revised.

The aerospace giant is infamous for the Calamity Capsule – Starliner – but is also a major contributor to NASA's monster Moon rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS).

Boeing makes the Core Stage for the rocket, but SLS development has been slow and hit by frequent delays. It is also a costly way to get beyond Earth's orbit, but is the only way to send astronauts to the Moon for now. Aside from the Orion capsule on the top of the stack, it is also entirely expendable, unlike SpaceX's Starship.

The rocket finally made its maiden launch in 2022, sending an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon and back. The next launch, Artemis II, is expected in 2026 and will send a crew around the Moon. A landing mission, Artemis III, is planned for 2027, with a SpaceX Starship as the crewed lander.

A Boeing spokesperson said, "To align with revisions to the Artemis program and cost expectations, we informed our Space Launch Systems team of the potential for approximately 400 fewer positions by April 2025. This will require 60-day notices of involuntary layoff be issued to impacted employees in coming weeks, in accordance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

"We are working with our customer and seeking opportunities to redeploy employees across our company to minimize job losses and retain our talented teammates."

The current US administration is seeking to reduce costs, with the boss of SpaceX, Elon Musk, at the head of a group charged with making "efficiencies" in US government operations. It is not hard to imagine Musk taking a look at the Artemis program and the SLS and thinking, "That can definitely go."

The SLS contract was also issued on a cost-plus basis, meaning that the US government is on the hook for costs arising from the overruns and delays.

Nothing has been announced by NASA or the US administration, so Boeing's action could be regarded as more preemptive than anything else. It is also difficult to imagine that the US Congress agrees to cut or make significant changes to the program since US lawmakers directed NASA down the Artemis path in the first place.

In addition, Artemis is not solely a US program. The European Space Agency (ESA) supplies the Orion service module used to provide power, propulsion and life support during the mission, and would be less than amused if wholesale changes are made.

The components for Artemis II are already being assembled for next year's mission. Artemis III is also likely safe, although, beyond that, we'd have to say that all bets are off. In December, Elon Musk described the Artemis program as "extremely inefficient" and called it "a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program."

The billionaire concluded, "Something entirely new is needed." ®