Raytheon to lay off 82 workers at NASA Langley

Raytheon Co. confirmed Wednesday that it plans to lay off 82 employees at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton.

The workers will be laid off Oct. 27, according to a notice Raytheon filed with the state under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

"This is the direct result of a recompeted contract," said Jon Kasle, a spokesman for the company based in Waltham, Mass.

Raytheon had been providing information-technology services to NASA, but that contract has been awarded to a different company, Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies Inc., or SGT, an aerospace services firm based in Greenbelt, Md.

The five-year NASA Langley contract is worth up to $183 million, according to an Aug. 10 NASA news release about the SGT award.

Some of Raytheon's employees might be hired by SGT to continue their jobs, Kasle said.

In an e-mail, Shelley Johnson, an SGT spokeswoman, wrote: "We look forward to the opportunity to meet with the incumbent personnel during the transition period."

Added H. Keith Henry, NASA Langley news chief: "We don't know how it will work in this case, but usually in these kinds of cases the majority of people in one contract are picked up in the next contract. "

An unknown number of subcontractors also will be affected, Kasle said.

Robert McCabe, (757) 446-2327, robert.mccabe@pilotonline.com