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NASA Trims Cape Canaveral Job Loss Forecast

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The Associated Press

Published: June 24, 2008

CAPE CANAVERAL - NASA told a Senate panel Monday that it anticipates losing 3,000 to 4,000 jobs at its launching site once the space shuttles stop flying in two more years, about half the cutback initially reported.

Although as many as 6,000 to 7,000 shuttle jobs will be eliminated at Kennedy Space Center, about 3,000 positions will open up in the new exploration program, said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. Those jobs will be created to build and fly new spaceships to the International Space Station and, later, to the moon.

"I can't say it's good news, but it's certainly news that's a step in the right direction," said Sen. Bill Nelson, chairman of the space subcommittee, who organized the hearing.

When questioned by Nelson, Griffin said he does not expect to have a clearer job picture until 2009. NASA is under presidential orders to complete the space station and stop flying its three remaining shuttle orbiters in 2010, then shift its focus to moon exploration.

Overall, the new rockets and spacecraft will require fewer workers.

It's expected to be 2015, five years after the last shuttle flight, before NASA's new rocket ship is ready to blast off with astronauts. Nelson and Sen. Mel Martinez, who attended Monday's hearing, bemoaned the fact that the United States will have to rely on Russians to get Americans to the space station during those five years.

Nelson said layoffs could economically devastate the area, similar to what happened during the lull between the Apollo moon shots of the early 1970s and the first space shuttle flight in 1981.

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