It was kind of a good day for Boeing (NYSE:BA) today as the beleaguered aircraft manufacturer managed to get a major new delivery made that gives it some new life in the defense sector. However, news about the Starliner astronauts, still out in space, didn’t help matters much. Boeing shares were down fractionally in Tuesday afternoon’s trading.

Boeing delivered the first of its kind Chinook CH-47F Block II helicopter to the US Army, which is actually part of a larger plan to modernize the operation. In fact, reports suggest that the army will be taking as many as 465 of the new Block II Chinooks, which provide significant improvements in cargo capacity and fuel consumption, reports noted.

The new Chinooks, reports note, boast an improved airframe and drivetrain system, and are also built in such a fashion that future improvements can be made as they come available. The Block II Chinook, reports note, represents “…the Army’s Heavy Lift platform of tomorrow…”, and also offers a return to previously-lost payload capacity, along with better flight control.

(Not So) Lost In Space

Meanwhile, Boeing astronauts are having a rough run of things, as the mission is stuck in indefinite mode. New word out of NASA insists that the astronauts are not actually “stuck” in space, despite the fact that there is no definite date for them to return and no other way for them to leave the International Space Station.

So far, the Starliner flight is about two weeks overdue for return, and they’re set to remain for “…at least several more weeks” while engineers try to determine what happened to cue multiple leaks and multiple thruster failures in the meantime. Given that the module contains the thrusters is reportedly designed to be burned up upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, getting the understanding of why so much went wrong does become vital.

Is Boeing Stock a Buy, Sell or Hold?

Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on BA stock based on 16 Buys, five Holds and two Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 11.89% loss in its share price over the past year, the average BA price target of $213.21 per share implies 14.98% upside potential.