Increasing competition from SpaceX has led to the elimination of 48 jobs at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), is letting four dozen people go on June 1, reported the Los Angeles Times. The layoffs will mostly affect aerospace technicians.
The move follows the Colorado company’s elimination of 350 additional jobs last year to achieve its “business goals.”
“United Launch Alliance continues to transform our company to provide cost-effective solutions for our customers while we maintain our focus on mission success,” the company said in a statement. “We appreciate all of our team members’ contributions and understand the difficulty and stress that workforce reductions place on the impacted employees and their families.”
Vandenberg Air Force Base, located northwest of Santa Barbara on California’s Central Coast, serves as a launch site for both United Launch Alliance and SpaceX. With Elon Musk’s private company winning two Air Force contracts, including one last month worth $96.5 million to launch a GPS satellite, United Launch Alliance has lost the monopoly it held on Air Force missions until 2015, when SpaceX was certified to launch national security satellites.
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