Boeing Exec: 10K Layoffs Possible

Boeing’s Shaw Warns Of Space Job Cuts
Aviation Week

The ‘big five’ US space companies could lose up to 10,000 jobs over the next few years unless the government accelerates procurement of first elements of the Constellation family’s Ares V and Altair programs, warns Boeing’s Space Exploration division head Brewster Shaw.

The ‘big five’ companies currently supporting the space shuttle program, namely Boeing, Lockheed Martin, ATK, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and United Launch Alliance, “are at risk of laying off 8,000 to 10,000 people,” says Shaw. The issue for the US space industry remains the looming gap between the retirement of the shuttle and the emergence of the follow-on Constellation family.

“If the procurement for Ares V and Altair is accelerated to 2010 so people could start work on it by 2012 it will alleviate some of it.”

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