Extension Of Shuttle Program Postpones Layoffs

The Gavelston County Daily News:  NASA contractors who work on the space shuttle program will have a reprieve from imminent layoffs.  NASA’s announcement on Thursday of changes to the final shuttle launch schedules will grant workers a few more needed months of pay.  NASA has also proposed an additional launch of the Shuttle Atlantis for June 2011 but that launch is still awaiting the White House OK.

Texas will be hard hit by the end of the shuttle program and the Lone Star state expects to lose 1,000s of jobs.  To add to its woes, the recent decision to effectively scrap the Constellation program, which had plans to put man back on the moon, will cost the Houston area alone some 6,000 jobs.

The Obama administrations release its plans this week for the future of the space program.  It adopts a collaborative approach with the burden being spread across a number of nations.  It envisions long term goals of putting men on mars and various asteroids.  For now, in the short term, it will leave a lot of workers high and dry.