Boeing

Prime contractor for the SLS core stage and the Space Station, and builder of the Starliner crew capsule.

Founded
1916
Headquarters
Arlington, Virginia
Machines in the atlas
5

Boeing built the first stage of the Saturn V, and in December 1996 it bought the aerospace and defense business of Rockwell International, which had built the Space Shuttle orbiters. It is NASA’s prime contractor for the International Space Station and builds the core stage of the Space Launch System at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans; the larger Exploration Upper Stage it was also building was dropped in NASA’s February 2026 Artemis changes.

Its Starliner capsule was ordered alongside SpaceX’s Dragon in 2014 for $4.2 billion. After a troubled crewed test flight in 2024 it is still not certified to carry NASA crews, and in November 2025 NASA cut the firm order from six flights to four, with two more as options. On September 28, 2026, NASA said an uncrewed Starliner-1 could fly in December 2026 or January 2027, that it intends to exercise the options for a fifth and sixth flight, and that it plans to fly astronauts on Starliner-2 by 2028.

Money from NASA

ContractValueYear
Commercial Crew: Starliner (firm order cut from six flights to four in 2025)$3.7 billion (was $4.2 billion at award)2014
Space Launch System core stageprime contractor2012–

What it builds

Stories that involve Boeing

3 more stories

Sources

  1. NASA, Boeing Share Update on Commercial Starliner Development Plans NASA, September 28, 2026
  2. NASA’s Management of Its Commercial Crew Program (IG-26-011) NASA Office of Inspector General, June 30, 2026
  3. NASA’s Management of the Space Launch System Stages Contract (IG-19-001) NASA Office of Inspector General, October 10, 2018
  4. NASA Strengthens Artemis: Adds Mission, Refines Overall Architecture NASA, March 3, 2026
  5. International Space Station Boeing
  6. Boeing Huntsville at 60: Where the past is prologue Boeing, December 2022
  7. 3 California companies that helped shape Boeing Boeing, April 2026
  8. How William Boeing’s foresight kept the company close to D.C. Boeing, February 2026