BOEING TO SHIFT JOBS SPACE STATION WORKERS FACE REASSIGNMENT.

Byline: Ian Hanigan Staff Writer

CANOGA PARK - As design and manufacturing winds down on the International Space Station, the Boeing Co. is looking at cutting project-related jobs at several of its centers, including Canoga Park and Huntington Beach.

Boeing is reviewing what jobs will be eliminated, consolidated or moved to its space station headquarters in Houston, spokeswoman Kari Allen said Tuesday. The restructuring, which will be made official this summer, had been planned to kick in when the program matured, she said.

Boeing, the prime contractor for the massive extraterrestrial project, has about 5,000 employees whose work directly impacts the space station. About 500 of them report to the aerospace giant's Huntington Beach facility, where Boeing developed and built framework and other components. The Huntington Beach center also provides mission support.

At Boeing's Canoga Park base, about 150 workers developed the station's electrical power system, which runs off massive solar panels. Other space station work is performed in Houston; Huntsville, Ala.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Even if jobs are cut or moved to Texas, Boeing is not anticipating any layoffs, the company said. Instead, employees will likely be shifted to other Boeing centers that need trained aerospace workers, such as Boeing Satellite Systems in El Segundo.

Boeing is using a $9.6 billion contract from the National Aeronautics Space Administration in part to coordinate the work of 16 countries involved in the space station. Allen said about 95 percent of the groundwork is complete on the U.S. portion, meaning Boeing will need fewer workers as it gears its efforts from manufacturing to support.

``It's a good problem to have because it means we have hardware in orbit, and we have a crew in orbit and it's how the program is suppose to progress,'' Allen said, ``and most employees understand that.''

Assembly of the International Space Station, the most complex venture ever attempted in space, began with the first piece launched in 1998. In all, 100 elements will be sent up during 88 space flights - 37 of them aboard the space shuttle fleet and 51 aboard Russian spacecraft.