Space Launch Workers Badly Burned in Electrical Explosion at Vandenberg Air Force Base

Two workers for a company that launches spacecraft for the U.S. government were seriously injured in an electrical explosion at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast.

The United Launch Alliance said in a statement that the two employees were transferred Monday to a Los Angeles hospital that specializes in treating burn victims.

Reports confirm that the two were working at Space Launch Complex 6, where a Delta IV rocket is being prepared for an August launch, when an “arc flash” occurred.

Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center (Los Angeles) 
The Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, also known as the LAC+USC Burn Center, is one of three burn centers located in the Los Angeles area.

This center is a teaching hospital that also houses a number of other injury-specific centers, such as pediatric and coronary care.

More Than 1,300 Space Shuttle Workers Get Layoff Notices

More than 1,300 space shuttle workers received layoff notices this week from United Space Alliance – a NASA contractor that is cutting 15 percent of its 8,100-person workforce ahead of the shuttle fleet's retirement next year.

Layoff notices were issued to 1,394 USA employees in all, company spokesperson Kari Fluegel told SPACE.com.

The layoffs take effect Oct. 1 and were announced earlier this month by USA officials.

"Our workforce has known for several years that the Space Shuttle Program has been scheduled to end, but layoffs are always difficult for everyone involved," said Virginia Barnes, USA president and chief executive, said in a July 6 statement. "We are committed to making this transition as smooth as possible."

Shuttle program ending
The Houston-based United Space Alliance is a partnership between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin that has operated the space shuttle fleet for NASA since 1995.

Fluegel said 902 layoff notices were issued to USA workers in Florida, which is home to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral that serves as both launch site and home port for the agency's three shuttles.

Another 478 layoffs were issued for Texas, which is home to NASA's shuttle mission operations, with 14 more in Alabama, where NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center is based.

About one-third of those recieving layoffs in each division nominated themselves for the cutbacks, Fluegel said.

NASA's space shuttle fleet is set to retire next year after 30 years of launching astronauts into low-Earth orbit. The shuttles began flying in 1981 and have flown on 132 missions so far.

Two final shuttle missions are currently scheduled (in November and February, respectively) to complete the International Space Station, which has been under construction since 1998 by a consortium of 16 countries.

Congress is discussing the possible addition on a third and final shuttle mission. If approved, that extra flight would likely launch next summer, NASA officials have said.

Fluegel said that if the extra shuttle flight is approved, it will not affect the impending Oct. 1 layoffs. But there could be repercussions for more layoffs ahead.

"This plan wouldn't be affected at all, but it would affect the timing, obviously, of when we would do layoffs, and how we'd do layoffs, next year," Fluegel said.

Indian nuclear workers deliberately poisoned by radiation in water supply

Workers at a nuclear power plant in southern India were treated for poisoning after drinking water was deliberately spiked with radiation, senior government officials said Sunday.

Routine tests showed 55 employees from the plant in Kaiga in the state of Karnataka had increased levels of the radioactive element tritium, which is used in nuclear reactors.

B. Bhattacharjee, a member of the National Disaster Management Authority, said someone had inserted contaminated water into a water cooler, according to the Press Trust of India.

The employees had not suffered any ill effects and had returned to work, plant officials told AFP.
Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar, speaking on the Headlines Today television network, blamed the sabotage on "an insider who has played mischief".

Kakodkar said security was "fool-proof" and there was no chance of an outsider gaining access to the station.

The Nuclear Power Corporation of India, which operates the country's civil nuclear facilities, said in a statement that preliminary enquiries revealed no radioactive leak or security breach.

"It is possibly an act of mischief," the statement said.

State ministers assured local residents that their health was not at risk.

The Kaiga plant was shut down in October for annual maintenance and is due to reopen shortly.