Rocket Maker Announces Layoffs

Morton Thiokol, the sole producer of the space shuttle’s solid-fuel rocket boosters that are under scrutiny in the fatal explosion of the Challenger, announced Friday that it will lay off 200 full-time employees and place another 1,400 on a four-day workweek.

Company spokesman Gil Moore confirmed the layoffs at the Wasatch Division west of here and said they would affect employees who have been working directly on the space shuttle program.

The layoffs will take effect next Friday, when 200 workers involved in the rocket booster program lose their jobs, but Moore said he did not know how soon the workers could be called back.

“We surely don’t. That will depend on the result of the investigation,” Moore said.

The other 1,400 workers, who also are involved in booster production, will be cut to shorter workweeks beginning Feb. 24, Moore said.

Those workers will be allowed to take already-earned paid vacation days to make up for losing income from the fifth day of the week, he said.

The Ogden Standard-Examiner reported earlier that Morton Thiokol had drawn up a contingency layoff plan in the wake of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s decision to ask the company to halt rocket production.