Chicago-based Boeing announced new plans on Monday to build space shuttles for people and cargo. Boeing will build reusable capsules that can take up to seven people into space.
Ever since NASA’s space shuttle program ended, the U.S. has been relying on Russia to get to the International Space Station. Boeing’s new program is expected to provide another way to get there.
Morningstar analyst Neal Dihora said Boeing’s space technology accounts for about 13 percent of the company’s sales this year.
“With the space shuttle shut down, they were going to see some exits or decreases in revenue and this actually helps them over a longer time frame,” Dihora said. “But it’s not really that big of a material difference for the entire company as a whole.”
Boeing will lease a former shuttle hangar at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The project is expected to create more than 500 jobs by 2015. More than 4,000 space-related jobs have been lost in the Cape Canaveral area.
