MIAMI (AP) -
More than 8,000 NASA contractor jobs in the manned space program could be
eliminated after the space shuttle is retired in 2010, the U.S. space agency
said Tuesday.
The number of civil
servants is expected to remain roughly the same, but dramatic job cuts are possible among private
contractors as NASA transitions to the Constellation program, which is
developing the next-generation vehicle and rockets to go to the moon and later
to Mars.
Constellation isn't
scheduled to begin flights until 2015.
Bill Gerstenmaier, an
associate administrator for the space agency, cautioned that the estimates of
job losses were preliminary and don't take into account numerous factors of
potential workload. "Don't overreact to these numbers,'' he said.
But NASA also acknowledged
job losses could fluctuate depending on who's occupying the White House next
year and their support
for space exploration. President George W. Bush leaves office in January.
The bleakest forecast was
issued for the flagship Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, where
just 1,600 to 2,300 employees were expected to remain in 2011, a cut of up to
80 percent from its current 8,000 workers. The Michoud Assembly Facility near
New Orleans was forecast to lose as many as 1,300 of its 1,900 jobs.
"Our greatest challenge
over the next several years will be managing this extremely talented,
experienced and geographically dispersed workforce as we transition from
operating the space shuttle to utilizing the International Space Station,'' the
report said.
Nationally, NASA said the
number of full-time civil servants in its manned space program would fall to
about 4,100 in 2011, a loss of about 600 jobs from this year. Including outside
contractors, the number of jobs would fall to an estimated 12,500 to 13,800.
About 21,000 are currently employed.
NASA said it could be more
than a year before it has more dependable job forecasts.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist
said the state was committed to trying to blunt the impact of the job losses
with an aggressive effort to lure new contractors to the area that would work
with future NASA flights, as well as private launches. In all, he said the state
was trying to attract more than 50 space-related firms to the state.
"This rapid shift is
opening doors for new companies and technologies that are blurring the previous
separations between aviation and spaceflight,'' Crist said.
Tracy Yates, a spokeswoman
for United Space Alliance, the largest space shuttle contractor, said the new
report came as no surprise. "It's no secret here that we will be a smaller
company once the shuttle missions have been completed,'' she said.
Associated Press writer
David Royse contributed to this report from Tallahassee, Florida.
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