Posted: Wed, May 7, 2003, 10:21 AM ET (1421 GMT)
A federal investigation into Boeing's possible misuse of confidential Lockheed Martin documents is hampering efforts to develop a previously-unreported launch vehicle joint venture between the two companies, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. According to the article, the Air Force had been working with the two companies over the last six months to develop a joint venture to combine some of the facilities used by the two companies to prepare and launch rockets. The joint venture would be similar to United Space Alliance, the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture that operates the space shuttle for NASA. The report made it unclear whether the joint venture would be used only for military launches or for other government and commercial launches as well. Those negotiations, however, have been hampered by investigations that Boeing and its predecessor, McDonnell Douglas, obtained proprietary Lockheed Martin documents during the bidding for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) contract. Boeing admitted that the investigation was ongoing in a one-paragraph statement included in its quarterly 10-Q report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
