United Space Alliance will lay off up to 500 workers at Florida's Kennedy Space Center and up to 200 workers at Houston's Johnson Space Center, the company says.
USA, which is taking over space shuttle operations for NASA, will begin the layoff process Jan. 30. Laid-off workers will be off the payroll Feb. 13, USA spokesman Jeff Carr said.
USA employs 6,000 workers at Kennedy and 3,000 at Johnson. NASA is cutting back its shuttle flights by 37.5 percent. USA is reducing its workforce by only 8 percent, so remaining employees' workloads won't be increased and safety will not be compromised, Carr said.
"This is not an arbitrary reduction," Carr said. "We're responding to a reduction in flight rate, which is a reduction in workload."
Carr added that layoff decisions will be based on employees' performance records.
"We want to make sure we're keeping our best performers," Carr said.
The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, an oversight group that reports to NASA and Congress, is investigating the safety repercussions of the layoffs.
USA is setting up an employee assistance center and is planning job fairs to help employees find new jobs.
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