Boeing will lay off 89 employees at its Michoud Assembly facility in New Orleans, a result of the uncertainty facing the NASA Artemis lunar program.
The company said the job losses are expected to begin April 18 in a letter it sent earlier this month to the Louisiana Workforce Commission that was posted to the agency’s website.
Boeing said it will potentially cut just under 400 workers nationwide who were involved in the Artemis program, to “align with revisions to the Artemis program and cost expectations.”
The move underscores the uncertainty facing the Artemis program under the Trump administration, although no specific modifications to the current Artemis plan have been disclosed.
The Trump administration, though, especially with SpaceX founder Elon Musk pushing for a renewed focus on Mars, may shift the direction of the Artemis program, including the further use of SLS rockets, prompting the potential layoffs from Boeing.
The company’s recent filing with the Workforce Commission comes nearly a year after it announced it would begin laying off an “unspecified number” of employees at its facilities.
At the time, Boeing had about 1,100 workers in Louisiana, most of whom were based at Michoud.
In a statement earlier this month, a Boeing spokesperson said the company had “successfully mitigated a majority of the previously announced workforce reductions,” though he declined to say how many workers were laid off in 2024 or how many more were planned.
Asked at the time about future job cuts, spokesperson Joshua Barrett said that while Boeing remains committed to supporting NASA’s Artemis missions and delivering capabilities for the core stages and Exploration Upper Stage (EUS), “workforce adjustments are still necessary to drive efficiency and cost effectiveness on the program as portions of Boeing’s SLS work matures from development to production. We will redeploy teammates where possible but expect to proceed with fewer than 200 involuntary layoffs.”
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.