Boeing names new Space Station chief in latest change affecting program
International Space Station seeing several management changes
Boeing Co’s (BA.N) International Space Station program manager Mark Mulqueen will leave the company next month and be replaced by the senior official overseeing Boeing’s Starliner astronaut capsule, a spokesman said on Friday.
Mulqueen’s retirement is the latest management switch-up to touch space station operations, as NASA’s space station program manager Kirk Shireman retires Friday to take a job in the private sector.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BA | THE BOEING CO. | 155.44 | +3.04 | +1.99% |
NASA INVESTIGATING FORMER OFFICIAL’S CONTACTS WITH BOEING
The move comes as the space station, a football field-sized research post 250 miles above the ground, undergoes a shift to commercial operations and as NASA increasingly welcomes companies to stimulate private space tourism.
John Mulholland, who managed Boeing’s Starliner program during a high-profile test mission failure last year, will take the helm of Boeing’s space station operations as the company renegotiates its decades-old contract with NASA.
In this photo provided by NASA, the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is guided into position above a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. (Cory Huston/NASA via AP)
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Boeing is the prime contractor for the U.S. wing of the international space station on a contract worth roughly $20 billion since its conception in the late 1990s. The company has built and managed much of the station for NASA.
Boeing’s senior vice president of space and launch, Jim Chilton, told employees in an email Friday that Mulholland’s new role will “reflect the continuing evolution of the International Space Station,” whose 20-year anniversary of housing humans in low-Earth orbit comes later this year.
The International Space Station (NASA)
NASA’s Kathy Lueders, who oversaw the program that funded Starliner’s development, was elevated to the space agency’s human spaceflight chief last week after predecessor Doug Loverro resigned.
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