Citing the shift in leadership of Boeing (BA, Financial), Elon Musk said Wednesday that the aerospace firm is on "a much better track with the new CEO." Musk spoke on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, during a conversation on American engineering talent.
Former Rockwell Collins executive and aeronautical industry veteran Musk, CEO of Tesla (TSLA, Financial) and SpaceX, compared Boeing's present leadership under Kelly Ortberg with former CEO Dave Calhoun. Musk attacked Calhoun for lacking rocket and aviation knowledge. Following a safety incident in January whereby a door panel of a Boeing 737 Max 9 separated mid-flight, Ortberg's appointment coincided with growing questions about the safety record of the aircraft following its 2018 and 2019 crashes.
Musk takes aim at NASA's Artemis lunar missions, characterizing them as "very inefficient." Artemis depends on a Space Launch System rocket, for which Boeing is the main contractor. Advocating completely new methods to space exploration, Musk described the effort as "a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program." Working with NASA, SpaceX is important in Artemis since it supplies its Starship Human Landing System to get personnel to the moon. Engineering and automation advances of Tesla complement Musk's more broad-based goals of expanding technology across multiple sectors.
