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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The private contractor that handles the bulk of the work servicing NASA's space shuttle fleet is notifying 1,400 employees in Florida, Texas and Alabama that they will be laid off in the fall.

United Space Alliance this week began telling workers, including 900 employees at the Kennedy Space Center, that they are expected to be let go by Oct. 1 as part of planned reductions from the end of the space shuttle program.

Laid off workers will receive between four and 26 weeks of pay, depending on their years of service.

The shuttle program now employs about 8,700 contractors, down from 12,000 employees in October 2008. It also employs another 1,200 civil workers, who are expected to be assigned to new programs after the shuttle.

The last shuttle flight is expected next year.

___

Information from: Florida Today, http://www.floridatoday.com

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Comments

[EllaMcD]

From Candidate Obama's speech in Titusville, Fl:

"We cannot cede our leadership in space. That's why I will help close the gap and ensure that our space program doesn't suffer when the Shuttle goes out of service by working with Senator Bill Nelson to add at least one additional Space Shuttle flight beyond 2010; by supporting continued funding for NASA; by speeding the development of the Shuttle's successor; and by making sure that all those who work in the space industry in Florida do not lose their jobs when the Shuttle is retired - because we cannot afford to lose their expertise."

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=13930.15”

[EllaMcD]

What's really sad is that years ago, Kennedy Space Center was determined to be a Center of Best Manufacturing Practices Excellence.

Ironically, the workforce activities that it was recognized for excellence won't happen with privatizing NASA into the better-cheaper-faster version of NASA Inc. - all that excellence work stuff just costs too much for the privateers (and will most likely be their downfall in the end).

REPORT OF SURVEY CONDUCTED AT NASA KENNEDY SPACE CENTER
BEST MANUFACTURING PRACTICES CENTER OF EXCELLENCE
Navy, Commerce, UM
http://www.p2pays.org/ref/05/04939.pdf

[relians]

most of those laid off were illlegals....

[aligatorhardt]

I agree with the President's invitation for private investment in NASA. We do not need the spend huge sums of money on space exploration. There is nothing in the universe that is worth the cost of freight required to bring materials from other planets to Earth. The only real advantages for the average person is satellite communications, which is paid for by private enterprise already.

[Erzsebet Gilbert]

We SHOULD be spending on space exploration, rather than on, say, a disastrous embroilment in international war and occupation.... There is everything in the universe that's worth exploring! NASA isn't just the Shuttle: consider the Hubble Space Telescope, the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan, explorations of comets and asteroids, the imagery of Mars... come on! You can say that satellite communications are the "only real advantage for the average person", but no! The value is in the knowledge, the discovery, the search.

[aligatorhardt]

I agree completely on the issue of military spending. The military is the reason why so much is spent on NASA. What i'm saying is for a person that cannot pay for medicine or other basic needs, they don't get much satisfaction from their money being spent on pretty pictures from space or the latest toxic plastic. When we can't pay for someone's unemployment insurance we cannot spend money on frivolous pursuits.

[rr52]

Space exploration was really pushed during the Bush/Cheney regime. I figured the wealthy were looking for a place to rehabit after they permanently trashed up the earth and Dubai was an experiment in recreating everything they are used to having here but in extreme weather conditions, i.e., a ski slope in a massive tube on the beach, and agriculture in the in the desert

I considered writing a sci fi book about it.

[FerrisValyn]

Actually, no it wasn't. They made lots of noises, but no follow through with it. A lot like many other things they did

[Uggg]

Heck they can get rid of NASA now

[MikeDu]

I never understood what the space-boosters imagined was 'out there'. Do you imagine mini-skirted moon maidens? Or pointy eared tall people with bowl haircuts, flowing robes and vaguely Latin-sounding names?

[FerrisValyn]

No, actually, we know a lot of usable stuff is out there. Things like large scale, clean energy, and usable minerals.

Near term, there are new industries that would create many new jobs for people - zero-g manufacturing, Earth to space transport, cheap remote sensing.

All of this stuff will help us save the earth

[Erzsebet Gilbert]

But "usable stuff" shouldn't be our sole motivation for space exploration and technology - what about pure knowledge for it's own sake???

[MikeDu]

Sorry for the layoffs but that white elephant should never have been built in the first place. Grossly over budget every step of the way. A real money pit. What was it, half a BILLION dollars each launch? The Japanese got their bullet train rail system decades ago. We got a corroded privatized Amtrak and the space shuttle.

[FerrisValyn]

I'll agree that we should've done something different, but don't blame the space program for the situation as it relates to things like public transportation. We spend a lot more money elsewhere, than NASA

[protagonia]

We are on a spaceship, in need of great amounts of repair service.

[lightningbolt]

It's a shame that the U.S. will lose manned spaceflight capability soon and that so many people will lose their jobs. We need to push Obama to renew government support for manned spaceflight.

[FerrisValyn]

Obama is renewing government support for human spaceflight. Thats why he is pushing for the development of vehicles like the CST-100, the Dragon, and The Dreamchaser.

He just want to make sure we don't have a repeat of the mess that resulted from Shuttle-ending and Constellation.

[StansDad]

space elevator ftw. It's the only reasonable solution to the problem of large space vehicles
Heavy lift rockets only get ya so far.

[lightningbolt]

The space elevator has one major problem: we don't have a material strong enough to withstand the forces the elevator cable needs to withstand. A carbon nanotube cable needs to be extremely thick in order to prevent it from breaking.

[StansDad]

Well, honestly it's just my opinion. And being a network engineer.. I'm probably not an expert in any regard but I think investing to find a solution will be worth every penny.

[NHBill]

The Shuttle was sold as a Space Truck a cheap and reusable vehicle to build in space.
It never succeed at that.
The shuttle had to be rebuilt after every mission.
It was expensive and in the end so unreliable the Pentagon had to build an alternative to launch their satellites.
It was OK for the 1970's but has long since become impractical.

[mamacat]

It had134 flights, two of which resulted in the deaths of all of the crew members. If it were a passenger jet, a boat, or a bus, the government would have shut it down a long time ago, and the manufacturer would be defending itself against huge liability lawsuits. After the second shuttle came apart, it was reported that some of the astronauts were getting drunk before the launches, to give themselves a little artificial courage.

Like everyone else, I thought the space shuttle was a great idea at first, but once we proved that it didn't work reliably, shutting it down became the only responsible thing to do.

[Rasberryrum]

Wouldn't our highly intelligent and skilled work force be of better use doing something to deal with this country's energy crisis? I know it's a different genre of science, but they're smart and innovative. I live in Huntsville, AL. I live amongst many of these engineers and know many people who work on these "projects". Some all but brag about how full of nothing most of the highly paid days at work are. I resent the fact that I can't have a public option so I can take my kids to the hospital when I need to, but these people all feel entitled to live on easy street for the rest of their lives. They are smart, they will find other high paying jobs that perhaps are a better use of their gifts to society. I think it's funny that the same people that complain about "entitlements" and "big government" think we should spend billions of dollars on an outdated and ineffectual program so that they can stay in the cushy jobs and vote against the interests of the rest of us.

[Ipanema]

Yes, it is time for the Shuttle to be retired and for the space program to move to a more promising future, not any longer based on manned flights. The Shuttle was always a bad idea prolongated by politicians who did not know the heads from their rears! Typical Washington screw up!

[Altario]

Are these Saved ort Created jobs? Ooops.

[Matthew Harrold]

Anyone remember when America actually wanted to bother with space? Man, those were the exciting days, filled with possibility. It'd be nice to think we'll one day get back to exploring space properly.

[jsarets]

Those were the exciting days, filled with possibility... of sudden nuclear annihilation.

The golden age of NASA was fueled by Cold War insecurities and paranoia.

When the Soviet Union collapsed and we no longer had to beat the commies, there was no longer any sense of urgency in our space program. We won the space race, and further human spaceflight achievement was no longer a geopolitical imperative.

There is no competition pushing us along. There is the rhetorical threat of Russian or Chinese moon landings, but that scenario is distant and remote. There are no major consequences of failure, so that's what we get for our money.

In the past 20 years, there have been several projects to develop a Shuttle replacement, and all of them ended in failure: NLS, SLI, X-33, OSP, and now Orion/Ares. Marshall Space Flight Center will keep throwing our money down a bottomless pit if we let them.

Without any competition, we're going nowhere fast.

[thereisonlyoneparty]

It is not just about competition. There is really no goal in sight in the short term.

There is Mars and maybe another moon landing, but what else is there? The moon was ultimately nothing. It showed that man had the intelligence and technology to leave a planet and venture onto a satellite, but other than that we did not accomplish much.

If there was a goal in reach in the near future there could be a more focused space program. Competition helped, but the ultimate target was in reach even from the beginning. 20 years is way too long to wait. From the threat of Sputnik to the moon only took 12. And that was 50 years ago.

[EllaMcD]

I Nominate Roger Lanius (Smithsonian) for NASA Administrator!

Public Opinion Polls and Perceptions of US Human Spaceflight - Academia.edu
http://si.academia.edu/RogerLaunius/Papers/93299/-Public-Opinion-Polls-and-Perceptions-of-US-Human-Spaceflight-

[NHBill]

The reality is Space is nowhere for people to be.
It is extremely dangerous and expensive.
We would be far better off exploring our own oceans than pouring more resources into manned space flights.

[lightningbolt]

Space travel has brought us many benefits that have lifted many people out of poverty and transformed the world of technology and science. The oceans are also extremely dangerous and expensive to travel to. We should explore both space and the oceans.

[CheechandBruno]

You have a very small mind

[Matthew Harrold]

We can't not afford to go into space as a species. All it will take is one asteroid of a big enough size and we're history. But beyond that we live on a finite world, and will have to go into space for the resources out there. Our future is and always has been in the stars, not on this planet.