None that I can think of or find, and space firms get bought all the time. I worked with someone who stayed in the same building for many years as it changed ha

None that I can think of or find, and space firms get bought all the time. I worked with someone who stayed in the same building for many years as it changed hands multiple times. Nobody ever told me they worked for "X, now NASA"--it was usually "Hughes, now Boeing" or "Y, now L-3." Individual contractors, however, can and do get hired by the government, but it depends on the NASA center. Most of the people at Goddard are actually contractors, not government employees, I believe.