Boeing plans to lay off hundreds of employees working on NASA's SLS moon rocket: reports

An orange-and-white rocket stands upright under a purple and pink sunset.

Boeing is preparing to issue layoff notices to roughly 200 employees working on the Space Launch System (SLS) — the massive rocket central to NASA's flagship Artemis program — as it braces for the possibility that its contracts with the space agency may not be renewed after they end in March.

Of the approximately 400 positions Boeing initially considered cutting by April "to align with revisions to the Artemis program and cost expectations," the company managed to preserve half of the jobs after daily talks with NASA, Boeing's Vice President and program manager for the SLS rocket, David Dutcher, notified employees in an email last week, according to Bloomberg.