"I don't really see a down side to this," Weatherman said.
The plan is expected to include a call to retire the shuttle fleet at the end of this decade, but so far it's unclear exactly what that means.
If it means exactly the way it sounds, and the winged orbiters are never to fly again, then a very large percentage of the approximate 13,000 people who work at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) can anticipate looking for a new job in five or six years.
NASA and contractor technicians, engineers and managers supporting the shuttle program at major sites in Alabama, Texas, Mississippi and California also would have to polish up their resumes.
Here in Florida, unless a new heavy-lifting rocket were to be designed -- something not in the plan right now -- there would be no need for KSC's three orbiter processing hangars or launch pads 39A and 39B.
The Vehicle Assembly Building might find continued use, if for nothing else as a giant new office park. Because of safety concerns related to the solid rocket boosters, the buildings vast office space is mostly empty.
The 52-story building is, essentially, six skyscrapers with huge open areas between them, all enclosed by a shell.
A smaller team of folks likely would treat a future crew exploration vehicle as cargo and ready it at KSC's space station processing facility before being launched on commercially procured rockets, such as the Delta 4 Heavy, from neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
While many might find work in NASA's expanded exploration program, the majority likely would have to take up new careers outside the aerospace sector -- something previously seen here after the Apollo program ended in 1975 and, to a lesser extent, following the 1986 Challenger disaster.
As part of budget cutting exercises led by former NASA Administrator Dan Goldin during the 1990s, the shuttle workforce already has been cut by half from its pre-Challenger numbers.
On the other hand, if the idea is to retire the shuttle vehicles by modifying them to become unpiloted cargo carriers -- something many NASA officials have been hinting at for several months -- then the current shuttle team is going to stay busy for many years to come.
Continuing to fly the shuttle at that point might be a job for private industry to tackle, a topic that has been discussed time and again in recent years. Even the International Space Station eventually might be managed through a commercial contract.
No one SPACE.com spoke with Monday could clarify the president's intent for the space shuttle hardware.
Official no comments until after the president makes his speech also came from NASA, United Space Alliance (the company responsible for preparing the shuttles for launch), U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) and U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.).
President Bush is expected to unveil his new space policy at 3 p.m.Wednesday at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C..
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe will then speak with agency employees nationwide via satellite, an event that will be broadcast live on NASA TV and webcast here on SPACE.com .
KSC Director Jim Kennedy is scheduled to meet with local news media on Friday to discuss what the new vision means for the space center. He was in Washington on Monday being briefed on the plan along with other center directors, officials said.
Weatherman said the challenge for her organization with this new space policy is to help diversify the area's economy by looking for businesses not directly connected with the shuttle program, while at the same time convince the aerospace community to design and manufacture a shuttle replacement in Florida.
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