Cuts in NASA's science budget are causing pain in Utah: 20 to 30 employees of Utah State University's Space Dynamics Laboratory will lose their jobs in July, and more layoffs are possible by next year.
The laboratory, based in North Logan, is a center for constructing small satellites and space instruments. It employs nearly 350 people under the umbrella of the USU Research Foundation. In a meeting last week, the lab's management told employees that up to 18 percent of the work force would have to go during the next fiscal year.
Michael D. Pavich, a retired Air Force officer, is the laboratory's director and president of the foundation. He said Thursday that in early July, the laboratory's staff would be reduced by 20 to 30 employees. More workers may be laid off before the end of the next fiscal year, which is June 30, 2007.
The total, including the layoffs this summer, could amount to about 60. However, if more funding comes in the 2007 fiscal year, "then we can mitigate that number," said Trina Paskett, spokeswoman for the laboratory.
Pavich said the reduction is "absolutely" connected to NASA's recent budget cuts in the area of science. "We had a 40 percent program cut in a program called WISE, which is a NASA Explorer program."
WISE stands for Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. The satellite project was the USU lab's biggest program. The satellite is intended to map the sky in infrared light, searching for the nearest and coolest stars, the origins of stellar and planetary systems, and the most luminous galaxies in the universe, according to NASA.
Peter Eisenhardt of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., told the Deseret Morning News in 2004 that WISE would be 500 times more sensitive than previous infrared surveys at some wavelengths, while at others it would be 500,000 times more acute.
"Probably the most exciting thing about WISE for me is the potential for finding a star closer to the sun than any we know about now," he said.
In 2004, the Space Dynamics Lab at USU won a $40 million contract to be paid over three years, to provide the science equipment for the satellite, including the telescope and cooling assembly.
But funding for WISE has been slashed as NASA shifts resources from its science-based programs to those relating to human spaceflight. Because of the association between JPL and the Utah lab, the cut had "a trickle-down effect for us," Pavich said.
However, the project is still going ahead.
"The whole NASA science budget is probably underfunded because of other priorities that they're working on, the International Space Station and the space shuttle," Pavich said.
The laboratory is offering severance for those who choose to leave, and is hoping others will take advantage of an early-retirement program.
E-mail: bau@desnews.com