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JSC leader fears tough transition, Houston Chronicle
"As NASA released more details Thursday about its restructuring under President Barack Obama's space proposal, the director of Johnson Space Center expressed optimism and concern. Though he welcomed the proposed addition of a five-year, $6 billion technology development program at the Clear Lake-area space center, director Mike Coats said he is concerned about job losses and not having a space vehicle to fly. "We have some challenges to confront here," Coats said. One of the big ones: Even contractors who will get jobs in the restructuring might find themselves out of work for up to a year as the new plans are being formulated."
NASA Announces Programs and Costs for Next 5 Years
"With all due respect to everybody," the general replied, "a serious and real concern for everyone is the jobs." As technology advances, there are fewer and "fewer manual-type jobs," he explained. Even with Constellation, several thousand jobs were going to be lost. "I think that is a significant issue for people," he said."
NASA to oversee space taxi development, USA today
"NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, "In terms of NASA planning, Constellation as a program is dead." Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, whose district includes Johnson Space Center, said Bolden's plans don't "change the fact that the president seems willing to hand off American dominance in human spaceflight to nations like Russia and China." "The president has a say in the budget process but by no means the last word," Olson said in a statement. "Opposition to killing Constellation, the program of record, is growing by the day."
I wonder, with HSF put on the back burner on this country for at least the next decade, if the feds might revise ITAR enough to allow us more opportunities to directly support the spaceflight efforts of other nations?
Or will this end up being a case of "we don't need your expertise, but we can't allow you to sell it on the open market either?"