New NASA contractor retains nearly all Michoud staffers that faced layoffs

Yahoo

7 days ago

NASA's Ground Transportation team guides NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket's completed core stage from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to the agency's Pegasus barge on Jan. 8, 2023. (Tyler Martin/NASA).
NEW ORLEANS – Nearly all of the employees of a NASA contractor at the Michoud Assembly Facility and Stennis Space Center that faced layoffs at the end of June have been hired by the company that's been awarded a similar contract.
Syncom Spaces Services, a Fort Worth, Texas-based joint venture, gave official notice to state labor officials in May that it would lay off 296 employees once its contract with NASA expired at the end of June. Several positions were impacted, including construction personnel, electricians, maintenance workers and engineers in multiple disciplines.
Nova Space Solutions was awarded an $823 million NASA contract last year to provide many of the same services as Syncom, and it has absorbed nearly all of the Michoud and Stennis staff that had worked for Syncom.
CJ Loria, Nova's president and general manager, said in a statement to the Illuminator that its contract does not cover some of the functions at Stennis that were split off into separate contracts. They include security services, the Stennis Fire Department and rocket testing,
'We hired roughly 95% of the incumbent … workforce that were not on the other three previously mentioned contracts,' Loria said.
Nova now employs 518 people at the two sites, with 260 of those at Michoud and 258 at Stennis.
Nova Space Solutions is a joint venture between Chugach Government Solutions of Anchorage, Alaska, and Amentum, a major government contractor based in Virginia. Amentum was also a partner in the Syncom contract, having partnered with BWXT, a multi-industry government services provider also based in Virginia.
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