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Space

Workers worry about layoffs after shuttle grounding

The grounding of the space shuttle program following NASA's problems with insulating foam raised fears of layoffs at the Louisiana plant where the foam is applied.

The New Orleans plant supplies about 2,000 jobs, many of them high-paying, in the economically depressed city.

"It's very depressing. We're concerned about our jobs, our livelihoods," said Mike Berger, an inspector for the foam application process who has worked at the Michoud Assembly Facility since 1980.

Employees continued their normal work Thursday, said Marion LaNasa, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, the main contractor at the plant.

"We have not impacted normal production in any way," he said. "We have plenty of work to do, but we have to stay focused on resolving this issue."

Suspension of flights after the destruction of space shuttle Challenger in 1986 led to hundreds of layoffs at Michoud, and 65 people were cut following the Columbia disaster in 2003.

Dwaine Payne, a welder, said he was laid off for more than seven years after Challenger's demise. He said he hopes he'll be able to work for another five years, long enough so he can retire at age 55 with health insurance coverage from Lockheed.

"I'm very much concerned," Payne said. "If they ground the shuttle program, we're going to lose a lot of people over this."

Other workers said they weren't worried because they were sure engineers could fix the problem.

"That's just going to be a minor glitch, and we'll be back up," said George Mason, a welder at the plant since 1982.

NASA officials said they are confident that the foam that flew off Discovery after liftoff Tuesday did not strike the shuttle, but the incident recalled the chunk that smashed into Columbia's left wing during liftoff in January 2003, leading that vehicle to disintegrate when it re-entered the atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board.

Investigators ultimately blamed a mind-set among NASA officials that fostered the idea that the breakaway foam would not damage the space vessel, but the disaster brought scrutiny to plant procedures, and procedures at Michoud were changed to try to improve safety.

Workers now have new ways of applying the foam insulation, which reduces ice on the external tanks formed by the supercooled fuels as the shuttle is prepared for launch, and heaters were also added.

[Last modified July 29, 2005, 00:52:10]