But Kennedy Loss Now Seen As Less Than Earlier Estimate Of 5,000 Or More

Thousands Of Space Workers To Lose Paychecks As U.S. Economy Begins Slipping Into Downturn

Thousands of NASA and contractor workers will lose their jobs at Kennedy Space Center and other installations when the space shuttle fleet retires in 2010 under a mandate from President Bush, though the loss may not be as severe at Kennedy as earlier feared.

Even in the most optimistic scenario, the new report shows that thousands of space workers may be dumped into unemployment lines, just as the U.S. economy is plunging into a deep recession, or the first depression in more than half a century.

Those job-loss figures came in an updated NASA report on the space workforce and how it will be buffeted by the space shuttle fleet retiring in two years, with the Constellation Program providing no replacement U.S. crew-carrying spacecraft until the first manned flights of Orion-Ares in 2015.

That half decade-long gap means the United States won’t be able to transport its own astronauts to the International Space Station that was built with U.S. efforts and $100 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars.

And when Orion-Ares finally does begin flying, it never will employ as many workers as the space shuttle operations required.

Specifically, the report shows that nationwide, 3,400 to 5,600 NASA and contractor workers might lose their jobs from the fiscal year 2008 that ended Sept. 30 to fiscal year 2013, including an estimated 3,500 at Kennedy. To be sure, that is less than the 5,000 or more jobs that earlier estimates indicated might be lost in Central Florida.

At Johnson Space Center, home to Mission Control and other operations, the job-loss estimates vary widely from 100 to 2,400.

To be sure, there may be several factors that at least potentially could soften the job-loss crisis.

For example, some shuttle employees may be working part of their time on Constellation Program work.

The figures in the report don’t include all of the potential Constellation work, unforeseen extra work that may be needed for Constellation, construction of facilities for that program, and purchase of commercial transportation services to the space station.

NASA hopes to buy logistics services from private firms that now are developing commercial orbital transport services, or COTS, to supply the International Space Station.

This report will be updated roughly every six months, as requested by members of Congress.

Also, job loss figures in the report are based on assumptions that the shuttles will cease flying in 2010, and that there will be a half-decade gap with no NASA space flight capabilities.

However, some lawmakers wish to see at least one more shuttle flight added, to take the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer experiment to the space station.

And some lawmakers as well ask why NASA should be spending enormous sums in a contract being negotiated now with the Russians for Soyuz crew transport services to the space station during the gap. Why not, lawmakers ask, keep flying the shuttles until Orion-Ares is ready for routine flights to orbit, and later to the moon?

The 34-page report titled "Workforce Transition Strategy: Space Shuttle and Constellation Workforce Focus" may be read in entirety at

http://www.nasa.gov on the Web, and then clicking on News & Features, clicking on News Releases, clicking on Latest Releases, clicking on NASA Issues Space Shuttle to Constellation Workforce Transition Report, and clicking on Workforce Transition Strategy Report – Second Edition, followed by clicking on Full Workforce Transition Strategy Report – Second Edition (1.4 Mb PDF).