RSS Feed
Twitter
3 Comments
Obama's NASA budget could cost Houston 7,000 jobs, KHOU
"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."
NASA chief vows help for Florida employees, Houston Chronicle
"Florida, facing the loss of some 14,000 jobs from retirement of the shuttle and President Barack Obama's proposed cancellation of the Constellation program, is widely expected to be an electoral battleground in the 2012 presidential campaign."
David Vitter criticizes NASA budget as lacking in ambition, NOLA.com
"Vitter, who also is concerned about the impact on jobs at the Michoud facility in eastern New Orleans, which produces the space shuttle's external fuel tanks, faulted the new budget for "not only ending the shuttle but completely canceling its replacement, the Constellation, with little more than a hope and prayer that commercial providers will eventually pick up the slack."
23,000 now expected to lose jobs after shuttle retirement, Florida Today
"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."
The "I don't care about space" dragon is emerging.
I watched the KHOU video addressed to people here in Houston. It was as shocking as it was intended to be. Interview after interview of people whose job is going away. They interviewed the youngest person, closest to their childhood and working closest to the astronauts, whining about their patriotic need to devote themselves to helping astronauts fly in space. I tell ya, if this doesn't turn the "I don't care about space" dragon around and back into its cave, nothing will.
Typical swan songs were sung on the news. Then it was followed up by local politicians pledging to bring Constellation back from the dead.
Even the local county judge in another news article in The Citizen, a JSC local community paper, has essentially given up on the local community's need for the manned space program. Instead he wants Houston to focus their entire business future on income and jobs from the Port of Houston through increased global trade with countries like India that want to send their oversized ships through our future-widened Panama Canal.
News medias at their best in the full spin cycle.
Whoa!
You know, when you see a tsunami approaching, your brain initially reacts in a way that is supposed to help you think of how to survive. In the end, the real survivors are the ones that immediately run up hill.