Space Shuttle Lay Off's

The Houston-based United Space Alliance is a partnership between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin that has operated the space shuttle fleet for NASA since 1995.  About 902 layoff notices were issued to USA workers in Florida, which is home to NASA's Kennedy space Center in Cape Canaveral that serves as both launch site and home port for the agency's three shuttles. Another 478 layoffs were issued for Texas, which is home to NASA's shuttle mission operations, with 14 more in Alabama, where NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is based. NASA's space shuttle fleet is set to retire next year after 30 years of launching astronauts into low-Earth orbit. The shuttles began flying in 1981 and have flown on 132 missions so far.