Keeping true to its promise, United Space Alliance will issue today and tomorrow some 1,000 layoff notices to its space shuttle mission employees at the Kennedy Space Center.  The layoffs, Click Orlando reports, will occur later this year and come as a result of the ramping down and the eventual elimination of NASA’s shuttle program.  Two additional flights, and potentially a third, remain for the aging shuttles after nearly 30 years of service.

United Space Alliance currently employs a total of 8,100 workers at their Florida, Texas, and Alabama sites.  Officials from that company plan on reducing its overall workforce by 15 percent as a result of the cancellation.  Experts predict that as many as 8,000 total Kennedy Space Center employees could lose their jobs when the shuttle program shuts down.