As other technology employers have been cutting jobs, Boeing Co. has been quietly adding positions in Colorado Springs to work on a new satellite system designed to detect and track objects orbiting the Earth as well as several other programs.

The aviation giant has added about 100 workers to its Springs payroll in the past year and expects to add an additional 50-75 this year to complete software design and hardware systems that control the Space Based Space Surveillance satellite system, as well as upgrades to the Global Positioning System satellite network and a new global military-communications satellite system, said Bill Hodgkins, Boeing's senior Colorado executive.

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Boeing is among the fastestgrowing firms in one of the few industries in Colorado Springs that is expanding amid a deepening recession that has triggered layoffs by technology manufacturers, retailers, construction firms and many others. The local defense contracting industry's 10 largest players employ more than 7,000, and several are filling openings after winning new contracts or additional work on existing programs.

Boeing's Springs work force has grown from 423 in 2006 to about 600 by the end of last year, mostly working on software engineering and hardware design on contracts for satellites that will be used by the Air Force Space Command and other local military units, Hodgkins said. Most of the company's local work force is composed of employees with computer science and engineering degrees who earn an annual salary of more than $60,000, he said.

"We began moving work on the Space Based Space Surveillance system here in the second half of last year because we are trying to integrate (teams working on) the software engineering and hardware design" of the three satellite systems, Hodgkins said. "Colorado Springs is the base for several key space-related programs for Boeing because it is the center for U.S. military space activities, missile defense, and for U.S. Homeland Defense efforts."

Hodgkins became Boeing's top local executive in October 2006 after retiring from the Air Force as a major general serving as director of plans and policy for the North American Aerospace Defense Command at Peterson Air Force Base.

"The aerospace industry is growing while the rest of the economy is struggling in a downturn. We are fortunate to have companies like Boeing and other aerospace giants with a signiffcant and expanding presence in Colorado Springs," said Mike Kazmierski, president and chief executive of the Colorado Springs Regional Economic Development Corp.

Nearly half of Boeing's local employees work on three satellite programs, much of it in the company's 5-year-old GPS Center near Peterson Air Force Base that serves as the centerpiece of its local software-development operations:

- The Space Based Space Surveillance system is a network of sensor satellites to be launched starting in April that will give the Air Force a real-time view of objects in orbit. Boeing says current ground-based systems don't have the timeliness needed to detect small objects in deep space. The system could be used to avoid damage to U.S.