Aug 11, 2011 12:46 GMT  ·  By
The end of the SSP brought with it large-scale layoffs in the space industry
   The end of the SSP brought with it large-scale layoffs in the space industry

Now that the American Space Shuttle Program (SSP) is over, the main contractors NASA that worked with for so many years are laying off their workforce. More than 1,000 people are expected to be let go by the end of this month alone, officials say.

In the months leading up to the last shuttle flight – Atlantis' STS-135 mission – several companies put forward estimates of how many of their employees they were likely to far once the SSP concluded.

One of these companies is now announcing that it will lay off more workers than originally estimates, while two others say they will fire fewer employees in August. The latter are United Space Alliance (USA), of Houston, Texas and Chicago-based Boeing Company.

USA has been the main contractor for NASA on the SSP for decades, but now the Boeing-Lockheed Martin initiative is expected to fire 515 employees, in addition to the 1,550 it laid off immediately after Atlantis' last landing at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

All in all, the company is expected to revert from having 10,500 employees to only 3,100 by the end of the year. According to spokeswoman Kari Fluegel, the company will carry out its second round of layoffs tomorrow, Space reports.

“On the 12th of August, that’s going to be our biggest layoff in Texas,” she told Space News in an interview on August 3. Fluegel added that additional workers will be let go from USA installations in Huntsville, Alabama and Huntington Beach, California.

Boeing spokesman Ed Memi said that that company is contemplating laying off about 260 workers on Friday, although the company at first decided to fire around 510 people. The different is made up of employees who either quit ahead of time, were reassigned to temporary jobs, or found other positions.

On the other hand, Lockheed Martin employees that are let go are mostly based at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. This installation was responsible for building and refurbishing the massive external fuel tanks on which the shuttles and their twin solid rocket boosters were affixed.

“We now have about 400 employees at Michoud. Approximately 100 will depart later this month as a result of the shuttle program end. Those supported launch and landing operations for the final mission,” says Marion LaNasa, a spokesman for Lockheed.

The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) will require that 200 of the remaining 300 workers remain on board for years to come. The other 100 will stay at Michoud for periods ranging from 6 to 12 months.

In addition to the large layoffs, companies such as Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, California and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) also laid off several hundred workers among themselves.