CHANGE: Space Shuttle Contractor Fires Hundreds of Employees.

Jay Beason was a senior aerospace technician at United Space Alliance until the company laid him off today. Beason began working with the space shuttles in 1988 and said he will miss his work family of 23 years.

“I spent countless hours and days and weekends with these guys. We loved what we did so much,” said Beason, who, in his most recent job at United Space Alliance, helped test and configure the space shuttles’ crew modules for astronauts.

“Turning in my badges was the hardest part. It felt like someone taking a piece of you away, a piece of your personality, a piece of your being,” he said. “I knew it was coming since February, but there’s no way to prepare for something like that. I got very emotional.”

Space shuttle workers like Beason numbered close to 9,000 just a few years ago. Big rounds of shuttle retirement-related layoffs, however, have whittled the workforce down every four to five months since April 2009.

The good news is that some of these people are going to space-related startups.