CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) —
NASA told a Senate panel on 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, ultimately, 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
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., chairman of the space subcommittee, who
organized the hearing.
The two-hour hearing, held
in the Port Canaveral offices just miles away from Kennedy Space Center,
attracted local officials as well as dozens of residents. Hundreds of people converged
for an outdoor rally right before the morning hearing; organizers put the head
count at 1,000. They held signs reading "America - one small step, one
giant voice" and "America the place for space" and linked hands
for the final seconds of a recorded launch countdown to show their support for
a strong national space program.
Nelson, who flew on space
shuttle Columbia in 1986 as a congressman, told the crowd that he brought
NASA's top leaders to Cape Canaveral to speak directly to the people whose jobs
are in jeopardy.
As the hearing got under
way, the senator noted there is an opportunity now, with the upcoming
presidential election, to change space policy and get more money for NASA.
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 space shuttles in
2010, then shift its focus to moon exploration.
Many if not most of the
engineering jobs needed to sustain the new moon program, called Constellation,
will likely be based in Cape Canaveral, Griffin said. For the space shuttle,
those positions are primarily in Houston and Huntsville, Ala., which are not
expected to have nearly as many, if any, cuts.
Overall, the new rockets
and spacecraft will require fewer workers.
"We're trying to give
you the best bang for the buck that we can," Griffin said.
It's expected to be
2015 — five years after the last shuttle flight — before NASA's new
rocketship is ready to blast off with astronauts. Nelson and Sen. Mel Martinez,
R-Fla., 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.
"The last thing we
need to do is to lose this tremendous work force, to put people out of work,
give them a pink slip, while at the same time we're generating jobs in Russia
to accomplish the same mission," Martinez said. "It's shortsighted.
It makes no sense. We need to reverse it."
Griffin acknowledged he
finds it "unseemly in the extreme" to have to rely on Russia.
"However, I can't find
a way to avoid it," he said.
It would have taken
significantly more money to get the new rocketship ready earlier and narrow the
five-year gap, Griffin said.
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