NASA Contractor Laying Off 550 Engineers, Others

PAUL FOY

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The phase-out of the space shuttle program brought 550 layoffs on Tuesday to a Utah company that makes the booster rockets.

ATK Space Systems said it was handing out pink slips to engineers, factory workers and others at three Utah locations.

The company, a business unit of Minneapolis-based Alliant Techsystems Inc., is developing NASA's powerful moon rocket as a replacement for the space shuttle. But funding for that program is uncertain, and the initial work isn't enough to maintain a full work force.

The layoffs will leave ATK Space Systems with around 3,900 employees at its Clearfield headquarters, a factory in Magna and a test facility in Promontory.

The company alerted workers to plans for the reductions in July. More than 130 of the employees voluntarily accepted a layoff. Along with others, they will get a severance package of up to a half-year's wages.

Some of the layoffs were blamed on the end of production for the government's Minuteman III ballistic missile program.