The primary contractor for the Space Launch System Rocket, Boeing, is preparing for the possibility that NASA cancels the long -term program.
On Friday, with less than an hour's notice period, David Dutcher, Vice President and program manager of Boeing for the SLS Rocket, planned an all-hand meeting for the approximately 800 employees working on the program. The apparently scripted meeting lasted only six minutes and Dutcher did not take any questions.
During his comments, Dutcher said that Boeing's contracts could end for the rocket in March and that the company was preparing for dismissals in case the contracts with the space agency were not extended. “Cold and script” is how a person described Dutcher's attitude.
Give a 60 -day notification
The space company, the primary contractor for the large core phase of the Rocket, has issued the reports as part of the Worker adjustment and retraining notification (or Warn) ACT, for which American employers must be 100 or more full-time employees to deliver a 60 -Daagen notification prior to massive dismissal or plant closures.
“To adjust to revisions of the Artemis program and the cost expectations, we today informed our Space Launch Systems team of the potential for around 400 fewer positions by April 2025,” a Boeing spokesperson told Ars. “This requires that 60-day notifications of involuntary dismissal will be issued to affected employees in the coming weeks, in accordance with the Worker Appoctment and Retraining Notification Act. And retain our talented teammates.”
The timing of the hastily convened meeting of Friday is leashed with the expected release of President Trump's budget proposal for the tax year 2026. This may not be a full plan, but rather a “lean” budget that a wish list of spending requests for the congress and a number of basic economic projections. The congress does not have to act based on Trump's budget priorities.
Several sources said there has been a healthy debate within the White House and Senior Leadership at NASA, including acting manager Janet Petro, about the future of the SLS Rocket and the Artemis Moon program. Some proponents of commercial space have urged hard to cancel the rocket downright. Petro has encouraged the White House to enable NASA to let the Missions Artemis II and Artemis III fly using the first version of the SLS Rocket before the program is canceled.
