According to reports, Ted Colbert, head of Boeing Space & Defense, is leaving the company.

Boeing gets a new space chief.

According to media reports, Ted Colbert will no longer be CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, one of the aerospace giant's divisions. These reports cite an employee memo released today (September 20) by Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who took over the top job in August.

“At this critical juncture, our priority is to restore our customers' trust and meet the high standards they expect from us to enable their critical missions around the world,” Ortberg said in the memo, according to CNBC. “By working together, we can and will improve our performance and ensure we meet our commitments.”

The change will take effect immediately. Steve Parker, chief operating officer of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, will serve as the unit's acting CEO until a long-term successor is named, CNBC reported.

The news comes less than two weeks after Boeing's Starliner capsule returned unmanned to Earth, completing a troubled test flight to the International Space Station (ISS).

Starliner launched on June 5 on its first-ever crewed mission, a test flight that brought NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the ISS. This mission, known as the Crew Flight Test (CFT), was only supposed to last about 10 days. But Starliner experienced problems with its engines shortly after reaching space, and after more than two months of investigation and discussion, NASA decided to return the capsule to Earth unmanned.

Related: According to NASA, the astronauts would have been fine during landing in the Boeing Starliner

Build Boeing’s Starliner!

(Image credit: Amazon)

You can build your own Boeing Starliner space capsule with this Metal Earth Boeing CST-100 Starliner 3D metal model kit, available for $10.95 on Amazon.

The landing on Sept. 7 was successful, and NASA officials said Wilmore and Williams would have been fine had they been aboard the capsule. However, the duo will remain aboard the ISS and will not land until February 2025 — aboard a Crew Dragon capsule built by Boeing rival SpaceX.

Both Boeing and SpaceX won multi-billion dollar contracts from NASA in 2014 to transport astronauts to the ISS and back. SpaceX is currently preparing to launch its ninth manned mission for the agency, while Starliner is not yet certified for such flights.

According to reports, Ted Colbert, head of Boeing Space & Defense, is leaving the company.

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