Senate Field Hearing On Life After Shuttle Draws Hundreds OfDemonstrators

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - As Florida's Space Coast, home to Kennedy Space
Center, grapples with the potentially devastating impact of thousands
of lost jobs brought about by the retirement of the space shuttle in
2010, the state's two U.S. Senators held a special field hearing at
Port Canaveral today to highlight the problems the local community and
NASA face in the coming years, and options the space agency may be
able to undertake to help mitigate the losses.

Senator Bill Nelson (D - Melbourne) chaired the hearing and was the
only Senate committee member in attendance, but was joined by Sen. Mel
Martinez (R - Orlando) in a show of bipartisan support for an issue
that crosses party lines.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin testified first during the 2-hour
session. Griffin did have some good news for worried space center
workers and citizens, both in terms of job losses and potential future
work for the space center.

Contrasting previous worst-case estimates of up to 6,400 job losses
post-shuttle, Griffin said the number will actually be between 3,000
and4,000. While still significant, it's substantially less than the
earlier figure. Previous estimates didn't take into account work for
contracts that hadn't been awarded yet or new work that will flow into
the space center, said Griffin.

Additionally, Griffin said that engineering work for sustaining
Project Constellation (Ares, Orion and the Altair lunar lander) will
be based at Kennedy Space Center, which is a departure from the
shuttle program, which has sustaining engineering based mainly at
Johnson Space Center in Texas and Marshall Spaceflight Center in
Alabama. Basing the engineering work at Kennedy will likely result in
hundreds, if not more, new positions being created at the center.

Griffing remained adamant that the shuttle must be retired in 2010 in
order to keep Ares and Orion on schedule, due primarily to the
shifting of funds from shuttle to Constellation and the need to turn
over infrastructure for modification for the new program. However,
under questioning from Sen. Nelson, he admitted NASA could fly an
additional shuttle mission for another $300-400 million.

Nelson, other Senators and Congressmen as well as many scientists want
the additional flight in order to fly the $1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic
Spectrometer which was dropped from the shuttle manifest after the
Columbia accident in order that the agency could focus on completing
assembly of the space station by 2010. Griffin said that if the go-
ahead were given by February 2009, that "we could execute the mission
in the late summer of 2010."

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill this year authorizing
the additional funds, as well as an extra $1 billion to accelerate
Constellation, by a whopping majority of 405 to 19. However, the
Senate still has to take up the matter, and the White House has
threatened to veto any budget that exceeds its request. The House
authorization is $2.8 billion more than the President requested.

After the NASA Administrator finished and a short resess, a second
panel of witnesses took the stand for questioning. Testifying during
the session round of questioning were local leaders Lynda Weatherman
of the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast, Steve
Kohler of Space Florida and Lisa Rice of Brevard Work Force
Development, Inc.

Rice informed the assembled crowd that the Aerospace Career
Development Council managed to obtain $1.25 million in funding for
retraining aerospace workers worried about the prospect of being laid
off. Affected workers can turn to Brevard Work Force Development, Inc.
to explore the opportunities available for retraining.

Local agencies such as the Space Coast EDS and Space Florida are
engaging in a variety of projects to attract non-NASA (commercial)
space projects to the area, and also new companies outside of the
space industry, as highlighted by the recent agreement with Brazilian
light jet manufacturer Embraer to locate an aircraft manufacturing
facility in Mellbourne, FL., bringing with it 200 highly paid jobs.

In a show of community support for the space program, a grass-roots
effort called Link To Launch (http://www.linktolaunch.org) organized a
demonstration outside the hearing venue at the Canaveral Port
Authority. Over 1,000 people, both space workers and community
residents, gathered at 8:30 to hear Nelson and Martinez speak to the
crowd.

At 9 o'clock, the assembly, numbering in excess of 1,000
demonstrators, linked hands and raised them to the sky in a symbolic
show of support for NASA and the U.S. space program. The demonstration
was meant to highlight the potential economic impact of the shuttle's
retirement in a personal and highly visual way for the dignitaries as
well as news media.

More space news at The Spacearium, http://www.spacearium.com

So NASA's going to suffer some layoffs because we're switching from
the Shuttle to Constellation. The workers who get the axe are going
to have to look for other jobs with Brevard, Embraer, etc. That part
I get.

What I don't get is the alternative being proposed by the people who
are making a stink about this. Are we supposed to keep relying on the
Shuttle? Keep both programs running at once? Besides flailing their
arms around in the name of "awareness", do groups like Link to Launch
have a viable plan?