Constellation Layoff Update

A "Voluntary Reduction-in-Force" option was emailed out late Friday afternoon to everyone on the ESTS contract, which is somewhere in the ballpark of 1100 people.

Yeah. The VRIF offer was pathetic. Basically $1,000 to be off the job by July 9.

Smart folks would hang around, knowing that under the WARN act they will get 60 days employment after getting the notice (which has to be handed out before July 1.) That assumes that the ESTS contract gets cut by 33%, which I'm pretty certain it will.

Right! The DOD and its $782 billion budget (not including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) could sure use former NASA employees.

We're becoming a nation of Spartans-- a warrior state.

Marcel F. Williams

I can't get the Borg queen's line out of my head....

"Watch your future's end."

Actually it was to be out-processed by this coming Friday (June 25), but you'll get two weeks pay plus 1, 2, or 3 more weeks of pay depending on how long you'd been there, and the $1000 extra. Not a super attractive offer unless you already have something lined up.

Why isn't Charlie Bolden being prosecuted for violating the law canceling Constellation without Congressional approval?

Editor's note: because he has broken no "law". The words everyone refers to are in a conference report - and conference reports are not "law". Secondly he is not "canceling" Constellation. Rather he is adhering to a century old law - the Anti Deficiency Act - that requires him to follow certain accounting practices including the contractual requirement to set aside termination costs which the contractors have not done. For him to ignore this provision of established law would be "violating the law". Constellation is not being cancelled. Orion will continue.

Don't count on the WARN Act helping much. It doesn't apply to subs, and it doesn't apply to everyone. There are criteria such as percent of the total, or if it is over 100, I'm not really sure.

Contractors with re-scoped tasks have to spend less money. The more people they let go that are subject to the WARN Act, the more people affected.

It stands to reason that they will have an incentive to let subs go first and keep their own people, and then try and stay below Warn Act criteria. Some may not be able to.

As far as legality, the admin is not cancelling CxP, he is just bringing it to a near stop. It's too bad that the admin and congress haven't gotten around to agreeing on what NASA will do. This is no way to "revitalize" the agency.

"Editors note: ..Orion will continue."

This remains to be seen, from what I have heard this is not going to happen once the dust settles. I tried to hang on as long as I could, but I was TOLD to move and not given a choice. I have the highest hopes, but I don't see Orion surviving this pissing contest between a mislead egotistical leader and a self centered legislator protecting jobs for the sake of votes. It saddens me that our future is decided (read destroyed and squandered) by people who cannot grasp the 20-50 year impacts of their actions.

It was never clear to me what Constellation was supposed to accomplish that was useful. It has at least five times the mission cost of SpaceX due to the extraordinary size and operational cost of the Apollo-legacy GSE, and the inefficiency of servicing segmented SRBs. The best thing NASA can do now is admit it, cancel all remaining Constellation and Orion activities, and try to reclaim as much of the money as possible for useful mission.

Yes, it's too bad Bolden/Garver didn't make it a priority to get Congress the information requested on the "Administration's bold new course for human space flight, which revitalizes NASA and transitions to new opportunities in the space industry and beyond" so that NASA could move forward.

Instead, the priority was to figure out a way and implement a method to bring the current program to a near stop, using the ADA, and get the layoffs started. They succeeded in this.

It will be interesting to see if Bolden makes the Friday, June 25 deadline to Congress for the new proposed budget's back up material - does this backup material even exist?

These actions, or lack of actions, speak far louder than any words to the NASA workforce. Agree, this is no way to "revitalize" the agency.

Keith,

Do you really think we are going to continue with Orion? It really doesn't serve any purpose at this point.

"Rather he is adhering to a century old law - the Anti Deficiency Act - that requires him to follow certain accounting practices including the contractual requirement to set aside termination costs which the contractors have not done."

He is SELECTIVELY adhereing to a century old law. Find ONE other NASA program/project which is doing this. Or has EVER done this.

This is nothing more than a tactic to cancel Constellation prior to Congressional action, pure and simple. Complications have risen by the President's decision to continue some kind of crippled Orion program to buy off the Colorado congessional delegation, leaving an even bigger mess than before.

Editor's note: oh, so its OK because "everyone else does it" ... just because his predecessors chose to ignore the law is no excuse for him to continue to do so. Go ask a lawyer.

To me the sad part about all of this is the single moms and young families who are about to be fired. Yes I know the Cx and government haters who come to this site don't care about these people but most normal thinking humans have sympathy for people even if they don't like the program they are working on. These good people went to school, got up early and went to work every day and all this mess has brought them down to the unemployment line.

Sure blame can be spread around to just about any one and any thing if you want to point fingers but I am not talking about who to blame - I am talking about the lives of people who played by the rules and did what they were asked to do. Wasn't there a better way to handle this? Why not a slow process so the industry and local towns could absorb a couple hundred people a quarter? Why this intense hatred and insanity toward these good people?

Don't be fooled by the pundits who say "oh they can go find good jobs - this layoff is not a big deal." That is not true - there are not enough jobs in Houston or Huntsville to absorb these people and yes the older guys will be able to use their experience to transition to something else.

So all this has come down to hurting thousands of good people at a time in our economy where there is little hope of them finding a job. Think about it. Where does a young single mom with an engineering degree in aerospace engineering with specific Ares rocket motor experience go find a job?? She won't. She will lose her house, go on unemployment and end up working (maybe) in a few years away from her mom and dad in an industry that pays half as much. Can't anyone feel the real story here? Sorry to be so negative but someone needs to point out the reality of this situation.

This is a very sad day for these young people and with all the bailouts of bankers, insurance companies, automotive companies, local and state governments, mortgage and credit card companies I am sure they will search for years trying to reconcile why they were selected to be punished so severely.

Its the strangest thing I've seen in my entire working career.

SpaceWriter. this is a problem nationwide. The reality nationwide is that what has worked for the last 50 years, has spent the last 20 or so being bandied on an "ad hoc" basis to try and keep it going...now it just cannot keep going.

What is happening in the process of that is the ones who are being screwed are the folks who you mention...not the leadership which seems to be skating off into the sunset almost without any sort of responsibility for their decisions. In fact the norm whether it is BP or Citi or the Mike Griffin's of NASA all seems to be explaining to everyone who will listen how it is not their fault or if only they had stayed in charge none of this would happen.

It is amazing to me how in the last year of the last administration, with a new one coming none of the people in charge took a serious look at where the program was going and figured out someway to save it.

We now have folks like Shannon telling us that they can build a shuttle derived heavy lift for less money then has already been spent on developing Ares 1/Constellation.

I dont believe a word of it, but assuming it was accurate...why did not they come up with this earlier?

It is a sad situation for all those being hosed

Robert G. Oler

I'm not buying the ADA flag waving at all.

We all know if there were no feud between the admin and Congress, they would not have pulled that crap.

It's boilerplate, like pot laws in Amsterdam. The only reason one would use it is when they have another agenda.

I would like to humbly submit this editorial about it called "The ADA, or, Why I miss Dean Wormer.."

:)

http://nasaengineer.com/?p=304

Apart from the obvious i.e. Orion is worthwhile salvaging. And it's political purpose. Orion has the potential to become a nexus of various technologies the US needs to develop TO CATCH UP WITH THE RUSSIANS:
- long on orbit duration
- reusability
- propellant transfer (assuming cryogens)
- ECLSS
- next gen comms
- next gen control
- automated R&D
- automated landing
- all terrain, all weather landing
- naive abort to surface
- failsafe abort to surface

Ultimately the Orion profile could evolve into an escape capsule for crew tended/ inhabited stations at ESL1 or ESL2 and all points between. As such the design might be licenced to other space powers like the Soyuz Capsule is at the moment: China, India, Brazil(?), ESA (???).

The main competitor is Russia's new PTK NP and the ARV if & when Europe gets it's act together!

I predicted the cancellation of Constellation when Obama got elected and my speculation was purely on politics based on the presumption that Obama Admin would not want to allow a George Bush legacy program to continue.
But if we step back and review other moves by this administration we may find more events to connect the dots to explain the motive.
We have seen not only the desire to end NASA manned space flight but the willingness to pay exorbitant fees to the Russians to launch Russian rockets to the space station, the apology tour where the president bowed to Saudi King and alluded to the idea of the US being a Muslim nation, the release of terrorist suspects from Gitmo, moving KSM’s trial to New York City, the unwillingness to secure our nations border whether infiltrated by illegals (suing the state of AZ) or by free flowing oil spill.
Can you see a pattern? It appears to be an anti-American stance with a stated plan to “fundamentally transform America.” So it is disgusting that a lot of us engineers and technicians will soon lose our aerospace jobs but it is even more disgusting when you relate to the bigger picture and realize the transformation is unfolding now.

"Change Orion’s purpose from being the main six man crew capsule and space craft for the next 30-40 years as intended by the Constellation Program to it becoming a simple pressurized capsule to use as an escape craft from the ISS if there is any problems requiring evacuation. That way, we don’t have to depend on the Russians for an emergency evacuation.-From Obama's new "program."

This is a classic bait and switch folks! After September, we will be dependent on the Russians for a ride up to the ISS. We are already dependent on the Russians for a ride home during an emergency by a contract with them when the ISS was started over 10 years ago. Currently there are two Soyuz craft docked at the ISS just for that purpose. That is part of Russia’s responsibility as our partners. I can’t see the Russians forbidding our astronauts to evacuate with them if there is an emergency." - http://www.rv-103.com/?p=457

Editor's note: oh, so its OK because "everyone else does it" ... just because his predecessors chose to ignore the law is no excuse for him to continue to do so. Go ask a lawyer.

Actually, in a court of law (especially copyright law, although this isn't a copyright issue), selective adherence to a rule does in fact excuse someone from following it. Its evidence (and pretty strong evidence) that the rule isn't in fact valid.

In this case, I can think of no other government contract where the contractor was required to cover termination costs. This is a clear change in how NASA is handling contracts and it does in fact look to be very selective in its application.

If L-M decided to fight this in court, I would put money on them winning...

I talked to a friend today who was a layoff victim. He said there was a massive blood-letting today amongst the contractors, with some people being sent home and not even getting paid for today's work.

I may not have the facts straight, but it's my understanding that Jacobs cut all their subs. I'm not sure how many, if any, Jacobs employees were pink-slipped. But I think the total number of layoffs was in the hundreds.

It's a sad day at Marshall.

It was handled pretty callously. I know a guy that had "visitors" to his cubicle around 9am. They gave him a few minutes minutes to empty his stuff into a cardboard box and escorted him out. I haven't touched base with him yet to see what happened after that. A couple of guys were told to be ready to clean out soon.

They are asking for volunteers to go to a modified work week (probably 3-day work week). The advantage is you would get to keep your benefits, albeit at a large pay cut. The arrangement would only last until the end of FY10, and then anything goes.

I've been in aerospace 20 years and have been the victim of one other layoff but have gone through a half dozen reductions in force. I have to say that this whole constellation experience has just about done it for me. I'm seriously in the mood for a career change!

Especially since this exact issue has already gone to the Supreme Court and ruled that the government can't force contractors to pay for their own termination costs.