Kirtland Space Office could face closure
Site employs 100; practices would shift to base in Calif.
For the second time in two years, the Pentagon is recommending that the Operationally Responsive Space Office at Kirtland Air Force Base — which employs about 100 military, government civilians and contractors — be closed and its practices be adopted by the Space and Missile System Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base.
New Mexico’s U.S. senators say they will work to avoid the closure.
The Operationally Responsive Space Office, or ORS, was set up at Kirtland in May 2007 to quickly develop and field small, less-expensive satellites that can be of immediate use to combat commanders.
Gen. William Shelton, head of Air Force Space Command, defended the Pentagon’s proposal on Friday at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces panel.
“What we’re trying to do is inculcate the ORS
lessons learned into the mainstream programs at the Space and Missile System Center,” he said.
The Space Missile System Center, the Air Force’s space acquisition arm, is located at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.
Shelton said the move is a cost-saving measure, triggered by the automatic sequestration cuts to the federal budget. “This is just a matter of how much budget we’ve got,” he said.
Congress last year rejected the idea for the current fiscal year.
Kirtland spokeswoman Marie Vanover said Wednesday that it would be “premature for us to speculate on any impact the loss of ORS would have on any other agencies on base,” such as the Space Development and Test Directorate, which provides system development, testing, evaluation, launch and on-orbit operations for Air Force space assets. The directorate employs approximately 217 military or civilian government employees, and about 160 contractors, Vanover said.
Since March, the ORS Office, formerly under the Air Staff and Office of the Secretary of Defense, has been aligned under the Space Missile System Center and Air Force Space Command.
Calls seeking comment from the Space Missile System Center were not returned Wednesday.
Marissa Padilla, spokeswoman for Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said the senator “will continue to support ORS at Kirtland in Defense Appropriations (Committee) and authorization legislation going forward. The Air Force has failed to justify the cancellation of ORS. This program benefits the warfighter and Sen. Udall has made this a priority with the Appropriations committee.”
“These cuts are penny-wise and pound-foolish and were explicitly rejected by Congress last year,” Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said Wednesday. “It makes no sense to me that the Department of Defense — in an attempt to lower costs — has again proposed terminating a program that lowers costs in the first place.
“The ability to develop and employ space technologies faster and at a lower cost is both strategically and fiscally responsible and I will continue fighting for the ORS program so that Kirtland remains a leader in cutting-edge R&D and that jobs remain intact.”