Space Workers’ Fate Up in Air : Jobs: The future and good health of McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. and its 11,600 employees hinges on its space station and Delta rocket programs.
The coming months may be like a nerve-racking ride on Disneyland’s Space Mountain for employees of McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. in Huntington Beach.
Several of the company’s ongoing space programs are experiencing upheavals that could send employment levels spiraling downward for years to come. About 300 workers already lost their jobs in January in a cost-cutting move.
Space Systems, the space subsidiary of McDonnell Douglas Corp. with 11,600 employees, has staked much of its future on its Space Station Freedom and Delta II rocket programs.
The space station is in deep political trouble because of its huge cost, which prompted Congress last year to order the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to cut the station’s budget and significantly scale back its design. But even a more modest design doesn’t guarantee that the station will survive the budget wars in Washington. A cancellation of the program would jeopardize 2,075 Space Systems jobs in Huntington Beach and Houston.
The Delta rocket--a staple program at the Huntington Beach facility--faces two key contract-bidding competitions this year. The two contracts could bring up to $1.2 billion in new business to McDonnell Douglas, while the loss of both awards could cost hundreds of more jobs in Huntington Beach.
Another program, the development of a reusable rocket to replace the Delta rocket, could generate some new jobs. But first, McDonnell Douglas will have to win a competition for a development contract due to be awarded by the Pentagon in July.
“We are climbing up a mountain and we know there is no free lunch,” said David C. Wensley, vice president and deputy general manager of the company’s space station division. “The customer keeps saying there’s a cliff coming in front of us and we keep trying to fill it with dirt.”
McDonnell Douglas has been designing space-station concepts since 1962 and, since 1987, has won $4 billion in contracts to develop major parts of the station.
But the program has fallen out of favor with Congress because of its cost--estimated by some at $37 billion, not including the cost of shuttle-deployment flights--and its heavy reliance on multiple space shuttle flights for assembly and maintenance.
In October, Congress cut $6 billion from the space station’s five-year budget and ordered NASA to design a more economical, less ambitious project that could be built in stages.
On Monday, NASA officials submitted the redesign to the National Space Council, the Bush Administration’s space advisory panel. NASA will show the redesign to Congress as early as April 8.
Some space experts say the station still faces big funding and technical hurdles.
A National Research Council advisory panel recently issued a report saying that the redesigned space station will not fulfill its basic mission of exploring human travel in space and greater commercial use of space.
“The question becomes whether the reduced mission of studying the performance of materials under microgravity is enough to justify the expense,” said John Pike, president of the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington lobbying group. “That is a hard-sell.”
McDonnell Douglas’ Wensley said the orbiting laboratory will eventually evolve to meet all the expected scientific aims.
“Better to have a smaller program with a solid foundation than one that is big and has wobbly knees,” Wensley said. “The idea that, if we can’t have a perfect laboratory in space then we should do nothing, isn’t practical.”
With the redesign all but final, some features of the new space station have become clear, and they will mean a significant change in McDonnell Douglas’ work on the program.
A contracting team headed by McDonnell Douglas was awarded a NASA contract to build the station’s truss structure, or main framework which supports the station’s four modules where astronauts will live and work. It is also building navigation, communications, propulsion, air locks and other systems.
The redesign includes a truss that, at 300 feet long, is roughly 40% shorter than originally planned. The new design has smaller living quarters for astronauts and would be assembled on the ground instead of in space, according to NASA and McDonnell Douglas officials.
Because of the redesign, NASA will have to renegotiate contracts with space-station contractors in the coming months.
“”We have to take $6 billion out of the project over five years, so nobody will get off scot-free,” NASA spokesman Mark Hess said.
In anticipation of the changes, McDonnell Douglas in January laid off about 100 space-station employees. In addition, the company cut a number of contract workers and shelved plans for hiring new workers, Wensley said.
In the company’s bread-and-butter, rocket-launch business, Space Systems is also bidding on two major contracts that could determine the fate of its Delta II rocket program.
Later this year, Motorola Inc. is expected to decide which rocket maker it will choose to carry its 77-satellite Iridium constellation into orbit. The constellation will enable Motorola to deliver 24-hour cellular phone service to remote locations of the world.
Lawrence E. Moore, a spokesman for Motorola’s Government Electronics Group in Scottsdale, Ariz., said that Motorola must first form a team of companies to finance the $2.3-billion network. The company expects to select a launch contractor later this year.
The Motorola contract could be worth more than $500 million over 22 months starting in mid-1994, a value greater than all commercial Delta contracts to date, said Don Tutwiler, director of Delta commercial programs.
The Space Systems proposal would launch six satellites on each of 12 to 15 rockets to deploy Iridium. The company faces stiff competition from Arianespace, a European space consortium, and Martin Marietta Corp.
Another crucial contract, Tutwiler said, involves a $700-million award to deploy 26 Navstar navigation satellites for the Air Force. The contract will be announced later this year.
Space Systems employs about 1,000 people on its Delta II program. If it wins both contracts, the company could hire as many as 250 more people, Tutwiler said. If it wins one, employment will remain flat.
The loss of both contracts would mean fewer jobs at Space Systems.
“If all fails, we probably would have an impact of 30% to 40% of our work force (of 1,000 people) with a reduced launch rate,” he said.
The American Federation of Scientists’ Pike thinks the Delta program will survive.
“I would be astounded if they didn’t get the Navstar contract and mildly surprised if Iridium happens because it is so expensive,” he said. “The federal government is the anchor for them and any commercial contracts are just the icing on the cake.”
McDonnell Douglas is also developing a reusable rocket for the “Star Wars” anti-missile program to replace the unmanned Delta II. The rocket would carry heavier payloads than the Delta II, which hauls up to 4,000 pounds, and could carry a two-person crew, said Bill Gaubatz, director of special projects.
Space Systems is competing with three other contractors--Boeing Co., Rockwell International Corp. and General Dynamics Corp.--for a development contract for the reusable rocket. The Pentagon’s Strategic Defense Initiative Organization is expected to select a single contractor as early as July.
McDonnell Douglas’ Design for Space Station Original Design Truss: 508 feet long, cube-shaped elements (shown above); made from composite materials to be assembled in space. Would have served as a main framework to support four living modules, act as a dock for lunar vehicles and as an anchor for experiments performed outside the station. Crew: Eight people in four modules. Deployment: Scheduled to be assembled in space beginning in mid-1995 and maintained with numerous shuttle flights. Computer Power: Ability to transmit more than 300 million bits per second. Electrical Power: Eight solar panels. Revised Design Truss: 300 feet long, hexagonal elements; made from aluminum and assembled on the ground; no docking capabilities for lunar vehicles; external experiments eliminated. Crew: Four with smaller living quarters. Deployment: Assembled on the ground and transported to space in several stages beginning in late 1995; fewer maintenance flights. Computer Power: Ability to transmit 50 million bits per second. Electrical Power: Six solar panels.
