AEROSPACE

McDonnell Douglas Announces Layoffs: The company said it will begin laying off today 250 people working on the U.S. space station program in Huntington Beach and another 350 in a Houston suburb. Another 125 jobs will be lost in Huntington Beach through attrition or, in the case of contractors, when their contracts are not renewed. The Houston plant will lose another 75 people the same way, the defense contractor said. McDonnell Douglas Corp. confirmed three weeks ago that it would lay off about 1,000 space station workers in Texas and Huntington Beach and at its headquarters in St. Louis. Altogether, the aerospace industry and government may lose as many as 4,000 workers as a result of the cutbacks in government funding for the program.