Alabamians Working On Returning to the Moon Might Lose Their Jobs

February 19, 2025 - HUNTSVILLE, AL - Since the beginning of time, humans have been curious about the big bright moon they see in the night sky. With humans also maintaining some curiosity about the fourth planet from the sun, the red planet known as Mars. As such, one of the feats of American technology, engineering, and exploration that has led to admiration around the world; was when the United States landed the first man on the moon on July 16th, 1969. And ever since "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" day, there has been a push to return to the moon. A mission that led to the development of the Space Launch System known as SLS. With the SLS being the primary launch vehicle for NASA's future outer space exploration plans. Plans that include sending a return mission to the moon and a mission to Mars. And, Alabama, has proudly been at the forefront of helping the SLS program literally soar.

The Marshall Space Flight Center, which is located in Huntsville, Alabama, headed the design of SLS which successfully launched its first mission into the outer depths of the night sky with Artemis I in November of 2022. Alabama companies including Boeing helped build the Artemis I rocket's 212 foot core stage and developed the flight avionics suite and ULA for it. With a factory in Decatur, Alabama producing the interim cryogenic propulsion stage for the rocket's upper stage. In fact, NASA has stated in the past that 106 companies in Alabama are making contributions to the SLS program and its Orion capsule project. With NASA representatives even stating that "From the pioneering development of the Saturn V rocket over a half-century ago to designing and developing the new SLS that will take Artemis back to the moon, thousands of Alabama space workers can take great pride in their contributions."

Now, however, those Alabama space workers are faced with massive layoffs. As Boeing, NASA's largest contractor for the SLS program, called a meeting with their employees on February 07th, 2025 who work on the SLS and informed them that the company may have to cut down on as many as 400 SLS-related positions as soon as April of 2025. These expected cutbacks come after six space industry representatives advising President Donald Trump and Elon Musk stated that they want the President and Musk to cancel the SLS program, or at the very least phase it out over the next several years.

It is to be noted that while Elon Musk is the head of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, he is also the CEO of the space technology company known as SpaceX. A company that builds rockets. And some question if these cuts into the funding and development of the SLS program represent a conflict of interest for Musk. As Musk has not shied away from expressing his disdain towards the SLS program. Musk even stated on his X account on Christmas Day that "Regarding space, the Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient, as it is a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program. Something entirely new is needed."

Kirk Shireman, who is the Orion program manager at Lockheed Martin, a company that has multiple facilities in Alabama, including a hypersonic strike production facility in Courtland, a missile and fire control facility in Troy, and an engineering facility in Huntsville; states that what the space industry needs to do is explain to President Trump and Musk that " . . . the fastest way to get humans back on the moon is to stay the course. Things take a long time to build and certify and, if you throw them away every four years and start over, that's probably the slowest and most expensive thing we could do."

Luisa Reyes is an attorney in Tuscaloosa with a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Judson, a master's degree in library science, and a law degree from Samford's Cumberland School of Law. She is also a piano instructor and vocalist.