The Aerospace Corporation started implementing a partial work shutdown on Oct. 3, after the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center directed Aerospace to stop work immediately on all but excepted mission-critical tasks.
The number of technical and support staff impacted by the stop work order is about 2,000, which is almost 60 percent of Aerospace’s total population of 3,500.
Those mission-critical tasks excluded from the stop work action include near-term activities in launch operations and support, resolution of on-orbit anomalies, and execution of ongoing satellite flight operations.
“In the face of this challenge, Aerospace will continue to serve our customers by performing valuable work,” said Aerospace President and CEO Dr. Wanda Austin.
The Aerospace Corporation is a California nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center and has almost 3,500 employees. It provides technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space missions to military, civil, and commercial customers to assure space mission success. The Aerospace Corporation is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., with multiple locations across the United States.