Posted: Wed, Jul 15, 2009, 8:00 AM ET (1200 GMT)
United Space Alliance, the joint venture that handles space shuttle operations, will eliminate 400 jobs this October as the shuttle programs begins to wind down. The cuts, announced by USA Tuesday, will include 240 workers at the Kennedy Space Center and 160 at the Johnson Space Center., and represent just under 5 percent of the company's current workforce. The company hopes that most of the reductions can be handled through retirements rather than through involuntary layoffs. Company officials said they don't believe additional job cuts will be necessary through the remainder of the shuttle program so long as the planned shuttle flight rate in 2010 of six missions remains unchanged. USA, jointly owned by Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has been handling space shuttle operations for NASA since the mid-1990s.

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