Obama’s Budget: Moon Mission Cut, Thousands of NASA Workers Will Lose Jobs, Houston & Florida Will Be Hit Hard with Unemployment (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on February 28, 2010
Pres. Barack Obama has proposed in his new budget the cutting of billions of dollars from the NASA space program, particularly that of the nearly completed moon mission Constellation project.
His proposal will hit hardest the Clear Lake area of Houston, Texas and areas of Florida with thousands more lost jobs… but the unemployment surge won’t stop in Texas and Florida, impacting a potential loss nationwide of 30,000 jobs. This, during the worst economic recession in three decades, is bleak news for Texas and Florida… and the rest of the nation.
Additionally, such defunding measures will plummet the United States from Number 1 to Number 3 in space technology, throwing us behind Russia and China.
How’s that hopenchange workin’ for ya?
KHOU News: Obama’s Budget: Thousands of NASA workers face uncertain future
From KVUE Texas News, NASA workers face uncertain future:
HOUSTON — NASA’s sprawling Johnson Space Center has always stood as a symbol of triumph and human innovation.
Yet, 40 years after Apollo 11 — and decades after American entered a new era in human spaceflight — it’s hard to grasp the change that may be on the horizon.
[...]
Critics say NASA’s proposed 2011 budget takes more than it gives.
The space program would get an additional $6 billion in funding over the next five years — but it loses the ambitious Constellation project — and America’s planned return to the moon.
Houston stands to lose big. Economists estimate as many as 7,000 jobs could be lost as the space shuttle program is phased out this year and the Constellation program winds down.
There were plans to shift shuttle workers to Constellation; that might happen now.
And none of this counts the indirect jobs that depend on the Johnson Space Center — jobs at local restaurants, banks and other nearby businesses.
If you count all those, one estimate has another 4,000 people around Houston at risk of losing their jobs.
“We do not want those individuals to move off to other states, or other areas of the country, and leave us. I mean, it’ll be like a vacuum,” Bob Mitchell of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership said.
“We have three large programs [and] we’re going to go down to one in about a six-month span,” said Mike Coats, director of the Johnson Space Center. “It’s a big impact here so we’re very anxious to figure out the path forward if you will.”
Coats said he planned to keep the space agency’s core competancies in Houston — human spaceflight, space operations and astronaut training.
“[Those] are the things that Johnson Space Center is known for,” he said. “I think we do what nobody else does.”
“If I can’t give him some programs that he’s going to build the workforce around he’s going to lose a lot of talent,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told 11 News. “I don’t want to put him in that position.”
The shift away from Constellation is significant.
NASA intends to find new ways to send Americans to space, and it hopes to have a way to do that within five years.
Without the space shuttle, NASA plans to rely heavily on private enterprise.
“The President has said, ‘This is the direction that I want you to take. I want you to facilitate the success of commercial access to low-Earth orbit.’ And that’s what we’re trying to do,” Bolden said.
NBC News, Jay Barbree: If Obama budget approved, US instantly becomes 3rd rate space nation behind Russia, China
From Florida Today, 23,000 now expected to lose jobs after shuttle retirement:
The local economic forecast tied to President Barack Obama’s proposed NASA budget keeps growing bleaker.
Revised projections now show that about 23,000 workers at and around Kennedy Space Center will lose their jobs because of the shuttles’ retirement and the new proposal to cancel the development of new rockets and spacecraft.
That sum includes 9,000 “direct” space jobs and — conservatively speaking — 14,000 “indirect” jobs at hotels, restaurants, retail stores and others that depend on activity at the space center, said Lisa Rice, Brevard Workforce president.
The organization’s earlier estimate of 7,000 direct jobs reflected just the retirement of the shuttle program. The updated numbers also include the cancellation of Project Constellation and other initiatives as outlined in the president’s 2011 budget, Rice said.
“Our unemployment rate is going to skyrocket,” she warned Thursday during a five-hour Brevard County Commission space workshop. Much conversation centered on the future of human space launches from KSC, and attendees heaped criticism on Obama’s strategy.
From Examiner, Pluses and minuses for Johnson Space Center in Obama budget proposal for NASA:
While commercial space advocates have hailed the parts of the Obama budget proposal that funds commercial space craft, others point out that cancelling the space exploration program may cede the high frontier of space to other countries. While the budget proposal does suggest funding for research and development into technologies that might prove useful for future space missions, NASA officials refuse to speculate when such missions would take place.
The prospect of no new missions beyond low Earth orbit would likely negatively affect the Johnson Space Center and environs after 2020, when the International Space Station would be decommissioned. That aspect of the Obama budget proposal alone promises a political fight within the Congress.
From Flopping Aces: Obama Plan to Kill NASA Rockets Will Kill 23,000 Florida Jobs:
The Obama Administration decision to cancel all further NASA development of new rocket technology including a replacement for the Space Shuttle and a rocket to the moon will also destroy the economy of the Florida Space Coast. In an era when Obama will spend a $trillion in taxpayer money to create a relative handful of jobs, he couldn’t spare the few billions to save jobs in Florida and save America’s reputation in space.
From FlightGlobal, Congress to dump Obama NASA plan:
White House plans to axe NASA’s return-to-the-Moon Constellation programme and ground the Space Shuttle have sparked unified opposition from Congress, which looks determined to preserve a full spectrum of US manned spaceflight activities.
A draft Congressional bill leaked to Flight International sets out the politicians’ alternate plan. It involves possibly extending Shuttle life to 2015, running competitive commercial crew and cargo programmes and continuing development of Constellation’s vehicles including a heavylift rocket designed to get astronauts to the Moon in the 2020s and then Mars.
From Florida Today, Angry senators demand answers from NASA chief Bolden:
WASHINGTON — Senators lashed out at President Barack Obama and the head of NASA on Wednesday for canceling the space agency’s program to replace the shuttles with new rockets and spaceships that would carry astronauts to the moon and someday Mars.
[...]
Obama proposed $6 billion more for NASA over the next five years. But Obama would spend $6 billion during that period to encourage private companies to develop rockets and spaceships capable of delivering cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station. Obama also would boost research at the International Space Station, which he proposed to extend from 2015 to 2020.
UPDATE, July 7, 2010: Reported by Gateway Pundit…
Former NASA Astronaut Cernan: If Head of NASA Believes Muslim Outreach Crapola He Needs to Resign (Video)
Newsy.com: Obama Budget Cuts NASA Funding, President Will Waste Money Already Spent on Constellation Program
About the author
[...] Café: Obama’s Budget: Moon Mission Cut, Thousands of NASA Workers Will Lose Jobs, Houston & Florida … and News Videos As Hawaii Braced for Tsunami 2010, Surfers Attempt Waves and More Aggravating [...]
The POTUS has only done this because he didn’t want to be accused of promising anybody the moon.
The key here is to see where the money goes.
NASA is denied, is ACORN denied ?
Are the unions (SEIU) benefiting from the windfall of taxpayer money suddenly snatched from progress on the forefronts of technology?
Are the jobs that may be lost due to the whims of a President and his administration unionized ? If not, how will they be compensated ? Or will they just join the ranks of the other unemployed millions out there.
Obama is a clueless menace to this country.
[...] Robert McCall passed away. You may not know who he is, but I’ll bet a few Grognards know of his work… raise your glass to toast one of the greatest visionaries of the Space Age. Much respect, Mr. McCall. Space never needed your vision more than today. [...]
[...] [...]
If Barack Obama had his way, we would have been a third world country a year ago. I can’t believe this empty suit fool is doing all that he’s doing to hurt this country and our space program. And there are still millions who adore him because they don’t educate themselves on what is going on in D.C. Idiots.
There is nothing this administration won’t do. I’m ashamed that I voted for Obama. Never again. This is going too far.
I’m so sick of this man. every day its something new – every single day. Unemployment is getting worse and he is the main cause of it.
Bush even on his worst day was better than Obama on his best.
We have to vote in November – everyone.
Socialism is choking America and her greatness. Choking our children’s future and our grandhcildren’s future.
I didn’t vote for Obama but I did the next worse thing in 2008 – I didn’t vote at all. I dont even know what I did that was so important. It was probly something lame and unimportant.
I won’t make that mistake in November. and you shouldn’t either.