NASA to begin layoffs as shuttle retirement nears

[Liberal_in_LA]

NASA to begin layoffs as shuttle retirement nears
Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:18pm EDT

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. 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.

The first 160 layoff notices go out on Friday, 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.

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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.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE54000I20090501
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.

[FreakinDJ]

1. Talk about America's decline

[exboyfil]

2. For a very long time the only way we will have to get to the

ISS is hitching a ride with the Russians. With the next major malfunction (or lack of regular maintenance/upgrade) the Hubble is done.

[bananas]

4. Private firms to haul ISS cargo

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/science/nature/7800721.stm

10:52 GMT, Tuesday, 30 December 2008
Private firms to haul ISS cargo

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

<snip>

And in April, Nasa told legislators it would stop asking for Congressional permission to buy cargo space on Russian Progress re-supply vehicles after 2011.

<snip>

That leaves the US dependent on European and Japanese spacecraft for delivering supplies to the space station.

<snip>

This month, Nasa awarded two companies - SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation - with lucrative contracts to provide cargo delivery flights to the ISS up to 2016.

<snip>

[conspirator]

3. what about the helium 3 race? Are they going to outsource it to India? nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. probably.