The United Space Alliance laid off 333 employees at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center Friday as the  NASA Space Shuttle program comes to an end, with an additional 400 being laid off at the various aerospace firms around the area.  Bay Houston Economic Partnership President Bob Mitchell said they hope that, “some portion of these will be rehired in the first quarter next year when the funding becomes clearer.”

Bob Mitchell refers to the new three year $58 billion NASA Authorization Act that Congress passed late Wednesday night, which unfortunately did not come soon enough for the hundreds of employees at Johnson Space Center.  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration center for human spaceflight training, research, and flight control, the Johnson Space Center is a complex of some 100 buildings in Houston, Texas.

These layoffs are among a string of recent job terminations across the country due to the new NASA budget bill.  The universal hope is that the development of a heavy lift rocket will spark life back in to the industry that many companies have built their livelihood on.