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NASA starts layoffs as shuttles to retire

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-05-02 09:50

CAPE CANAVERAL: The US space agency NASA plans to eliminate 900 manufacturing jobs over the next five months as it prepares to retire its space shuttle fleet in 2010, NASA officials said on Thursday.

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The first 160 layoff notices went out yesterday, primarily to contractors producing the space shuttle fuel tanks outside New Orleans and the shuttle solid rocket boosters in Utah.

The prime contractors for those components are Lockheed Martin Corp and ATK Thiokol.

"This is the first significant loss of manufacturing capability," shuttle program manager John Shannon told reporters.

The three-ship shuttle fleet is due to be retired after eight more flights to finish building and equipping the International Space Station and a final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Managers on Thursday settled on a May 11 launch date for shuttle Atlantis' 11-day mission to Hubble.

The visit to Hubble features five spacewalks to install a new camera, resuscitate two failed instruments and other work. NASA hopes the mission will leave Hubble in good enough shape to continue working until at least 2014.

NASA plans to replace the shuttles with Apollo-style capsules that in addition to traveling to the space station will be able to fly astronauts to the moon's surface.

Hoping to keep the new spaceships, named Orion, on track for a 2015 debut, NASA said earlier this week it had decided to produce only one version of the capsule with room for four astronauts, rather than the six-seater version that had been planned for flights to the station.

Reuters