Is Boeing Out of the Moon Landing Trade? Boeing Stock (NYSE:BA) Slides

While the latest round of moon landings has not yet really begun—the landing is expected to happen in 2028—aerospace stock Boeing (BA) may be out of the hunt before it has really started. Reports suggest that NASA may push Boeing and its Space Launch System (SLS) out of the moon landing trade altogether. The news did not sit well with investors, who sent Boeing shares down modestly in Monday afternoon’s trading.

This potentially represents a hefty loss to Boeing, as NASA was poised to send up as many as 20 SLS-based missions with a price tag of about $4.1 billion per mission. But the debacle that was Starliner may have changed some minds at NASA, with new reports suggesting that Boeing may be phased out in favor of a new approach more prominently featuring SpaceX instead.

Boeing still looks to have some presence in the early stages, with the SLS rockets launching Orion spacecraft, and the Orion spacecraft connecting to SpaceX Human Landing System (HLS) craft for deposit on the moon. But starting with Artemis VI, the SLS rockets will not get the Orion craft into space any more. Instead, a Vulcan Centaur rocket—still partially a Boeing product with Lockheed Martin (LMT)—may be used instead to get the Orion into Earth orbit, where the HLS tool can step in.

…So Where Did This Plane Come From?

One of the biggest mysteries in Indonesia right now has a direct connection to Boeing. For reasons best described as “there, somehow,” a Boeing 737 aircraft was found in the middle of a field in Bali. The plane did not crash, nor was it shot down. But it is currently just sitting in a field, and no one knows just how it got there.

The plane is in the middle of a field, surrounded by limestone cliffs. Reports suggest that the plane had been purchased by a wealthy developer who was planning to turn it into a restaurant, but that his project ran out of money before it could be completed. This notion was never confirmed, so the plane simply looks abandoned, sitting quietly amid field and limestone alike. Meanwhile, reports note it is not alone, as a second 737 is apparently parked near a Dunkin’ Donuts location in Bali, and has been there since 2007.

Is Boeing a Good Stock to Buy Right Now?

Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on BA stock based on 13 Buys and one Hold assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an 11.71% rally in its share price over the past year, the average BA price target of $280.27 per share implies 47.82% upside potential.

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