A proposal to move Thiokol Corp.'s nozzle work for the space shuttle rocket motors to Mississippi is being reconsidered.
NASA's Yellow Creek facility outside Iuka, Miss., where the nozzle work is scheduled to be transferred, could be shut down and sold, NASA spokesman Brian Welch said Monday.About 500 Utah jobs would be lost if nozzle production were moved east.
"But the proposal is just one of many being looked at as a way to cut $5 billion from NASA's budget between now and the end of the decade," Welch said.
Another space agency spokesman, Domic Amatore, said the proposal is included in a white paper that looks at how to restructure and reduce NASA. Both men emphasized that any decision about Yellow Creek will not be made until May.
"The only thing we are certain about is that there will be a reduction in NASA's budget, and that translates into the necessity for a reduction in the size of the work force and the need to do things differently," Welch said.
Amatore said the Yellow Creek nozzle facility "is still really on the very front end of construction. The design work, however, is well under way, with completion of the modifications expected sometime in '96."
The nozzle facility was to be created using 13 Yellow Creek buildings originally intended to house the advanced solid rocket motor that was killed by Congress in December 1993. That decision was good news for Thiokol and the Utah workers who continue to produce all rocket motors now used to launch the space shuttle.
Thiokol spokesman Steve Lawson said Monday that all he knows about the Yellow Creek facility is that "the project is proceeding as planned and on sche-dule."
According to the white paper, NASA could save up to $850 million by doing the nozzle work in Utah rather than moving it to Yellow Creek.
The recommendation, however, will be fought by Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. Unnamed sources told the Standard-Examiner that Lott is upset about the proposal. The Mississippi senator was a leader in lobbying to bring the nozzle facility to Yellow Creek after the ASRM was killed.
Bob Lockwood, spokesman for Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said the congressman is watching the issue closely.
"He recognizes that a very substantial amount of money has been invested in Yellow Creek and that while the proposal is good for Utah, it will come at a high cost to taxpayers. But we would hope that the cost would not in any way weaken NASA's commitment to continuing the nozzle work at Thiokol's Utah plant," Lockwood said.