USA Clips Space Shuttle Workforce

From Aviation Week: USA Clips Space Shuttle Workforce

CAPE CANAVERAL — While Congress mulls conflicting blueprints for NASA’s human space program, 1,394 space shuttle workers in Florida, Texas and Alabama got notice this week of what their future looks like — no job.

Following through on an initiative announced earlier this month, prime shuttle contractor United Space Alliance (USA) notified 902 employees in Florida, 478 workers in Texas and 14 in Alabama that Sept. 30 will be their last day of work.

The layoff notification marked the third and largest wave of workforce cutbacks enacted by USA in less than a year, with more employees expected to get pink slips next year as the final shuttle missions are completed.

NASA plans to fly two more flights – shuttle Discovery’s STS-133 mission in November and Endeavour’s STS-134 flight in February. Draft legislation pending in both the House and Senate proposes adding an extra shuttle flight to the International Space Station in the second half of 2011 using Atlantis, the Launch-On-Need vehicle configured to support Endeavour’s final flight.

The company, which is jointly owned by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, currently employs about 8,100 people under its shuttle processing contract with NASA.

USA is looking for new work in human space ventures, said spokesperson Kari Fluegel, adding that “a number of contracts we’re pursuing are still in the competition phase.”

The company remains a subcontractor to Lockheed Martin on the Orion capsule project, one element of the Constellation Moon program that seems likely to survive in some form in the new space exploration initiatives under discussion.

USA also holds the three-year, $207 million Integrated Mission Operations Contract with NASA’s Johnson Space Center and is a major subcontractor to Lockheed on JSC’s $667-million Facilities Development and Operations Contract.

“Certainly as we win new work and staff back up, even though we don’t expect that to happen overnight, we certainly will give consideration to our previous employees,” Fluegel said.