Dennis Muilenburg, chief executive and president of Boeing, made the announcement of the move in a speech at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston that kicked off a day-long “Space Summit” at the library commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, reports Space News.
“This is a major transition for us as a company as we set up our headquarters in the Florida Space Coast region,” he said. “The momentum and energy along the Florida Space Coast, the amount of investment that is happening, is extraordinary. So we’re honored to be part of that energy and momentum, and we hope to add to it with this relocation.”
The move does not involve a great number of people, according to Boeing spokesman, Dan Beck. The move will involve only a “small number” of people, led by current Space and Launch Senior Vice President Jim Chilton, his executive team and support staff.
There are no planned changes in the locations of the company’s other operations centers at this time. The move to Titusville from the current location near the Pentagon in Arlington should be completed by the end of this year.
Mullenberg cited several reasons for the move at a later question-and-answer session at the library – primarily the progress the company is making on several important projects – including the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle, Space Launch System(SLS), and the Phantom Express experimental spaceplane being developed for DARPA that may launch from the Kennedy Space Center, reports Florida Today.
“Now, as we see all of these programs transitioning from development to operation, now is the right time for us to make that transition,” he said of the headquarters move.
Boeing also points out the move builds on the six-decade history with Boeing and its heritage companies at the heart of the major space programs that launched from the Space Coast. “The time is right for us to locate our space headquarters where so much of our space history was made over the past six decades and where so much history awaits,” said Leanne Caret, Boeing Defense, Space and Security president.
More on the GAO Report
In related news, while Mullenberg said that the Space Launch System (SLS), for which Boeing is the prime contractor, remains on schedule for a first launch next year on an uncrewed test flight, he did not discuss a Government Accountability Office report, published June 19.
It appears that persistent delays and huge cost overrides are putting the first launch of the SLS into the middle of 2021 as the vehicle’s cost continues to grow. NASA also appears to have been obscuring the true cost of its development programs, the GAO writes in its report.
“While NASA acknowledges about $1 billion in cost growth for the SLS program, it is understated,” the report found. “This is because NASA shifted some planned SLS scope to future missions but did not reduce the program’s cost baseline accordingly. When GAO reduced the baseline to account for the reduced scope, the cost growth is about $1.8 billion.”
NASA originally had planned to launch the SLS rocket in 2017 but has since pushed that date back multiple times. The agency’s current administrator, Jim Bridenstine, has said NASA is looking at all options to keep the rocket’s inaugural launch within the calendar year 2020.
