President Donald Trump waits to address the crowd during the debut event for the Dreamliner 787-10 at Boeing's South Carolina facilities on February 17, 2017 in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Boeing has been making steady progress toward righting its commercial airliner business under new CEO Kelly Ortberg. The spectacular collapse of the relationship between President Donald Trump and his former first buddy Elon Musk could provide a lift for its struggling space division.

Amid a shocking exchange of angry statements on social media Thursday, Trump threatened to cancel federal contracts with Musk’s companies. The world’s richest man responded by asserting that his rocket and satellite company, SpaceX, would “begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately."

Though Musk later backed off from the threat, the blowup could have a payoff for Boeing in three areas: its struggling Starliner crew capsule program; the embattled Artemis moon landing program, for which Boeing produces giant rockets; and potentially United Launch Alliance, its rocket joint venture with Lockheed Martin.

It’s unlikely that Trump would follow through on his threat to cancel contracts –........

© Forbes