Ford Aerospace-Led Team to Modernize NASA Center

A multicompany team led by Ford Aerospace Corp., a Newport Beach-based defense contractor, has been awarded a $500-million contract to modernize the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Mission Control Center in Houston and build a new control center for the proposed U.S. space station project.

And in an unrelated move, Ford Aerospace said it recently sent layoff notices to 60 salaried workers at its Aeronutronics division in Newport Beach. The local division makes the Sidewinder and Chaparral missiles as well as electro-optical systems and ammunition.

The employees, mostly engineers and administrative staff, will be laid off in October, said Susan Pearce, a Ford Aerospace spokeswoman.

In total, Ford Aerospace employs 2,700 people at Aeronutronics.

The Ford Motor Co. subsidiary said the 10-year contract should generate about $300 million in revenue for the company during that period. About 40% of the contract’s revenue--$200 million--will go to subcontractors including International Business Machines, Unisys, and Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Ford Aerospace officials said.

“It is an extremely important contract to us,” Pearce said. “It enables us to maintain a significant presence in . . . major NASA programs of the future.”

The contract comes at an opportune time for Ford Aerospace, which has seen its business decline as a result of cuts in the federal defense budget.

Ford Aerospace said the contract will be managed by its 600-employee division in Houston, where the company will add 150 workers. There will be no jobs added in Orange County, Pearce said.

Under the contract, Ford Aerospace will give a complete face lift to NASA’s computerized control facility used in manned flights at the Johnson Space Center.

Ford Aerospace built the original NASA control center in 1963 and has been the prime contractor on several upgrades since then.

Ford Aerospace will also build a control center for the space station, a $25-billion project that is being designed for assembly in the mid-1990s.

The layoffs, announced separately, are the result of “a general decline in the division’s overall business volume,” Pearce said.

“We’re looking at a decline in defense budgets, and we’re taking measures to reorganize and do some things more cost-effectively.”

At the same time, Ford Aerospace said it has recalled all 300 employees who were temporarily laid off in May while the company conducted a review of its quality-control systems.

That review was prompted by the Defense Department’s concerns about the company’s quality control on three weapons programs at the Newport Beach division.

Those weapons programs involved the Sidewinder and Chaparral missiles and a target-designation system for the FA-18 fighter jet.