Jobs Are Still Hard to Find For Shuttle Vets
Former NASA Workers Struggle To Find Work A Year After Program’s End, AP
“A year after NASA ended the three-decade-long U.S. space shuttle program, thousands of formerly well-paid engineers and other workers around the Kennedy Space Center are still struggling to find jobs to replace the careers that flourished when shuttles blasted off from the Florida “Space Coast.”
This isn’t really very surprising. Sadly, there is just no market for their skill sets, especially in the areas they currently live in. I guess if people are willing to relocate some of them might find jobs elsewhere.
A friend of mine was laid off from work after 25 years of teaching and couldn’t find a job anywhere after months of looking. He is now in China teaching ESL. It’s the only place he could find work. I suspect that those laid-off shuttle workers wouldn’t have any problems finding jobs in China.
The political class, including the president, all came to Brevard County and made gallant speeches assuring that new job opportunities were right around the corner. It should surprise no one that the words were hollow and that the reality is entirely different
Like the dismantling of the California aerospace industry decades ago, here’s another tragic loss. It’s a tragedy for the families and it is a tragedy for the nation. We will need this skill set someday (soon, I hope).
It did not have to be this way. Shuttle C could be flying today.
It would have made an immense amount of sense to develop Shuttle-C and let the remaining Shuttle missions drag out over several years. The big question is what would Shuttle-C have been launching? Right now there is only a single manned mission planned in the next ~decade. The entire situation lacks foresight or planning.
How many NASA employees were let go? The article sure does not make that very clear.
That’s an easy one. Zero. Laying off NASA civil servants is forbidden by federal law.
Obama’s priorities are obvious. If you are a union thug, cop, fireman, teacher, state or city worker, there will be taxpayer money “stimulus” to preserve your job. If you are a private sector college degree professional, you are allowed to hit the street and good luck to you. I know many former Shuttle workers, most middle-aged, who have yet to find a job and they have mortgages and families, young kids yet. The government NASA types all kept their jobs and are allowed to twiddle their thumbs on various projects even though the nation does not have a manned launch capability and may not have one till 2017. Many of my former NASA friends have related to me that there is no leadership, they are bored and disgusted, but they still have jobs for as long as they want them.
I understand the frustration of losing ones job and the challenges that must come with it and for that my heart goes out to those families, but please be fair.
I am a firefighter (31 years) who happens to love space. In our last labor negotiation we had to take pay cuts, pay more for healthcare and lost 25% of our firefighters.
A lot of Americans are affected by this economy.
Fortunately, you got to “negotiate”. Shuttle engineering professionals were just given a pink slip. Don’t get me wrong, I know there are a lot of dedicated professionals in the teaching, law enforcement, firefighting ranks, etc. and I am not knocking these people at all, we need them. However, I disagree with the duplicitous policies of a Marxist Socialist President and do not believe that taxpayer money should be forked over to maintain jobs that typically are Democratic voting blocks. Like everything else, the jobs should be based on need and available funding, not pork and stimulus to buy votes.
When the Auto workers were laid off as well as steel workers, there seemed to be little sympathy for the men and women who very hard and took pride in their work. These workers were told to retrain, learn a new skill, life moves on etc. Seems that most Americans have little regard for some one else until their jobs or lively hood is impacted.
The most disturbing…quite a few have NASA Civil Service Engineers have retired and I know several that left at the end of 2011 and this past Feb. 2012 and only to find that they are still young and now they have nothing meaning for to do. Their hearts were to allow the young NASA Engineers to have a chance in case the unspeakable happens….now they are at home without a full salary and they have to pay their own benefits. The Early Out $$$ incentive have since gone and spent! $25,000 less taxes really does not go that far people! Just sad all around. I too pray for all those Unemployed contractor Engineers to hang in there and keep looking. Last week’s Sierra Nevada Corporation Job Fair near the Kennedy Space Center was Full of people that used to work at the Space Center and lots are still looking!
This is the lot of the aerospace worker, remember in the 70’s:
“Great job sending men to the moon! You’re all fired”
And in the 80’s
“Great job winning the cold war! You’re all fired”
Please remember in November who destroyed the Space Program. Orion could have been built by now if Obama hadn’t shut the program down in 2010. Do not give him another 4 years!!!
At least the Orion part of Constellation kept going and its further away from flight now than it was then. So despite Obama’s attempt to shut down Constellation, he wasn’t successful and we would not have been flying any time sooner. I think we need better leadership and a NASA and its contractors that can move more quickly, but Obama’s termination of Constellation had little to do with the problem.
If NASA were competent, Constellation would have been flying and the Shuttle workforce could have transitioned over to that program. NASA simply cannot finish any program it starts any more…..Bad trade studies, empty promises, lies about cost, etc. It is always about building a large organization first and appointing a lot of GS-15’s to run the program offices, etc. We had a fleet of rockets in Delta IV, Atlas V, etc but the lies were propagated that these vehicles would have been too expensive to man-rate and not powerful enough to launch the intended vehicles. Meanwhile, Orion continued to shrink, the Ares I weight to orbit declined, not to mention vibration issues, etc that became more and more expensive to fix. The next administration needs to dismantle NASA (finally), force retirements, hire engineers instead of loads of power point jockey salesman & managers and have a NASA program like we had in the 1960’s. It is all about “processes” now that are ineffective and absorb all of the effort, need to get back to engineering.
I think you are right. The most important thing-really the only important thing- was to get a manned carrier flying as a replacement for Shuttle before Shuttle terminated. There was no reason why this could not and should not have happened. As you say, existing vehicles could have been used, Orion was never sized for what was required. Today we have spent a huge amount of money, a lot of time, and have nothing to show for it. I don’t know about dismantling all of NASA, but a housecleaning in manned space is needed.