United Space Alliance, a world leader in space operations based in Houston, Texas, announced a plan to remove about 150 staff at its Kennedy Space Center located in the state of Florida. The cuts are attributed to the company’s preparation for its final shuttle flight. Though the mission is not yet officially budgeted, United Space Alliance is now preparing for the projected losses that may be incurred as the final shuttle returns home. The affected workers are slated to depart from the company on Friday, after 60 days of notice. It has been confirmed that the impacted staff will be eligible for severance packages based on their years of service plus some additional bonuses for selected employees. The cuts are said to be mixture of voluntary and involuntary layoffs. However, further details were not provided.

Tracy Yates, a company spokeswoman, revealed that more layoffs may follow this year as the company dramatically slashed its workforce to give way to the final shuttle flight. Yates added that the recent layoff will not affect the company’s operations. “The January layoff will not be impacted by the recent shuttle manifest changes, as much of the shuttle processing work is complete.” The shuttle Discovery’s flight was scheduled in November 2010 but due to some technical errors, the flight is now expected to push through in February 2011.

Kennedy Space Center’s workforce now employs about 13,200, including approximately 11,100 contractors and 2,100 civil servants. On October 1, 2010, over 900 employees were cut. United Space Alliance now has 4,000 employees at its Florida headquarters and about 6,500 companywide.