Space Station Cuts Cloud McDonnell Hiring Plans : Aerospace: Its Space Systems Co. suffered a setback when Congress trimmed current year funding for the program from $2.45 billion to $1.9 billion.

A redesign of the space station Freedom resulting from congressional cuts in the $37-billion project has clouded the hiring plans of McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co., a major contractor.

Congress last month slashed space station funding to $1.9 billion from a proposed $2.45 billion for the current year and ordered NASA to come up with a simpler, less costly design. As a result, about 2,000 new space station jobs will not be added this year, said Mark Hess, a spokesman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

But the impact of the cuts is unclear for McDonnell Douglas, which employs 2,000 people on the program in Huntington Beach and Houston, said Tom Williams, a company spokesman.

Since 1987, the Huntington Beach division and several subcontractors have been awarded contracts worth more than $4 billion to build major segments of the station.

These include the main framework or truss structure, propulsion system, air locks, communications and tracking system, data management system and several other systems.

Williams said NASA told the company in August to freeze space station hiring. But he said the employment picture for all contractors will be unclear until NASA releases details of the redesign. “We stand ready to do what we have to do for NASA,” he said. “The redesign could change work orders. Until then, we don’t know.”

Among the proposals that NASA is said to be considering is shortening the length of the 508-foot station, said a consultant familiar with the program. A redesign of the station’s main framework could have a significant impact on McDonnell Douglas’ work force as well as its subcontractors, the source said.

But Williams said a redesign of the truss would not necessarily force the company to change its employment plans.

“It could affect our work but not necessarily our people,” he said.

NASA has already ordered one contractor, General Electric Corp., to stop its work on external attachments to the space station, Hess said.

About 200 people employed by GE and its subcontractors at the Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Md., either will be reassigned or laid off, Hess said.

Over five years, Congress directed NASA to reduce the cost of the $37-billion space station by $6 billion. The agency still hopes to begin launching elements of the station by 1995, Hess said.