NASA Lifts Palmdale Off Shuttle Maintenance List
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Tuesday that it no longer would perform space shuttle modifications in Palmdale, where the durable spacecraft had been assembled and maintained for nearly three decades.
In a blow to Palmdale’s legacy as the center for the nation’s most important aerospace developments, NASA said all shuttle upgrades would be handled at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA officials, who have been under congressional pressure to cut costs, said the agency could no longer afford to maintain two modification sites. Though major modifications to the shuttles, such as replacing heat-resistant tiles, were done in Palmdale, the Kennedy Space Center increasingly has been getting maintenance work in recent years.
Moreover, space shuttles often had to be ferried atop a modified Boeing 747 from their landing pad in Florida to Palmdale and then returned to the Kennedy Space Center, a costly and time-consuming endeavor. In recent years, fewer space shuttles have had to land at Edwards Air Force Base, adjacent to the Palmdale facility.
A NASA review recently found that it cost the agency $30 million more annually to perform modification work in Palmdale compared with the Florida site.
Though NASA determined that either site could support the current shuttle launch schedule, “keeping two modification facilities active to support four orbiters is no longer feasible in today’s fiscal environment,” the agency said in a statement. NASA typically spends $70 million to $100 million periodically upgrading the shuttles.
The fate of about 300 people who work at the Palmdale site, also known as the Space Shuttle Orbiter Major Modification facility, was unclear, although officials with Boeing Co., which is under contract to perform the modification work for NASA, has scheduled a meeting with employees Thursday.
The work force at the facility often swelled to 1,000 people when one of the four space shuttles came to Palmdale for upgrades that would last up to 10 months.
NASA’s move is expected to have far-reaching implications for hundreds of Southern California subcontracting firms, many of which are mom-and-pop operations that supply shuttle parts.
Al Mooney, president of 12- employee Mooney Industries in Canoga Park, said about half the company’s revenue comes from work it does for space shuttle engines.
“It will affect us, but we don’t know by how much,” he said. The company has been supplying engine parts for the shuttles since the 1970s, when the first shuttle was under development at famed Plant 42 in Palmdale.
“It has been a good part of our business, but it is conceivable that as soon as they find locals to do it [in Florida], they would prefer to do it locally,” Mooney said.
Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), whose district includes Palmdale, has been fighting to keep the work in California for years but acknowledged Tuesday that with NASA’s budget constraints, his arguments faced an uphill battle. NASA has been struggling to control an estimated $5-billion cost overrun on the international space station.
“This morning, I was saddened when NASA officials informed me that they had made the determination to begin all future space shuttle orbiter major maintenance work at Kennedy Space Center,” McKeon said. “Unfortunately, NASA is under serious budget constraints. The international space station has forced NASA to reexamine its budget as costs have soared and funding shrank. NASA was forced to make a very difficult decision.”
