NASA Restructuring Beginning To Affect Jobs
The rocker motor manufacturer ATK Space Systems announced that they are laying off over five hundred employees at their plants located in Utah. This is due to the planned retiring of the Space Shuttle no longer requiring the production of the large booster rockets used in its launch. The company had hoped that some of these jobs would have been saved if the Ares program was further along.
NASA had originally planned that the Ares I and V would be the core launch systems to be used for future missions including returning to the Moon and perhaps further out in the Solar System. The Bush Administration had begun to commit funding to the development of the new launch system as well as a new crew capsule. The Ares program was a return to a concept similar to the successful Saturn V that originally went to the Moon rather then the Shuttle's focus on Earth orbit missions and research.
Since the Obama Administration took office they have used the independent Augustine Commission to review NASA's plans and programs. This concluded that there was not adequate funding in the existing planned NASA budget to support the goals of the current program. They did not recommend a replacement program yet but that may come later.
NASA is still going ahead with the planned retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet and turning to a series of commercial launches to support the International Space Station (ISS) with Russian vehicles supporting manned flights to that orbiting facility. There is concern that if relations with that country sour it may not be possible to continue supporting the ISS.
ATK Space Systems said another factor was the end of an Air Force contract for the Minuteman III ICBM and they are pursuing other contracts that will at least keep most of their work force employed. The layoffs indicate that there is weakness in this part of the economy and the future will depend on how NASA's funding falls out in Congress.
Some fear that without a focus on a large program to spur research and development the agency may become not more then a caretaker for the ISS with other limited research goals. This obviously would be cheaper for the U.S. Government in a time of fiscal stress but like with the defense budget lead to the loss of high-paying, technical jobs that are in short supply.