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SpaceX claims its first victims as Rocketdyne lays off 100
KPCC ^ | 11/9/12

Posted on 11/08/2012 11:53:10 PM PST by My Favorite Headache

Not SpaceX directly. NASA is backing off from running its own missions - and is turning over the servicing of the International Space Station to commercial space companies like SpaceX. Elon Musk's Hawthorne-based startup just recovered the capsule from its first mission to the ISS on a $1.6 billion contract.

But the money that NASA is spending on SpaceX and others who are offering lower-cost private missions is money it won't be spending on Rocketdyne, which was sold in July by parent company United Technologies to GenCorp for $550 million.

So Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is lay ing off 100 employees, most in the San Fernando Valley, the Daily News reports.

If commercial space traffic really takes off (the puns are impossible to avoid here), this could become more of a trend. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, long-term, for Rocketdyne and other's Southern California based workers. SpaceX has created the groundwork for the region to become a center of private, startup space companies. They'll be employers, and if they're successful, they could make rocket scientists more than smart. They could make them rich.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: jobs; layoffs

1 posted on 11/08/2012 11:53:14 PM PST by My Favorite Headache
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To: My Favorite Headache

Anyone keeping a running tally?


2 posted on 11/08/2012 11:59:24 PM PST by null and void (The One can steal an election, but no one can steal our country.)
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To: My Favorite Headache
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne

How many OTHER names has it had? Defense and government contractors change names so often that I'm not sure who has the lease on AF Plant #4 these days. I think General Goddamics is out, and they are back to 'lektric boats, and maybe Lockheed has it. Maybe.

Meh... as long as the paychecks cash.

I don't even want to walk the LTV, Air America, E-Systems history...

/johnny

3 posted on 11/09/2012 12:34:16 AM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: My Favorite Headache

Better Space X then NASA, which has turned into a big government climate change propaganda arm of the Obama Administration.

A couple more years and we won’t have to rely on the Russians to get to the station.


4 posted on 11/09/2012 12:34:43 AM PST by Carbonsteel
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