NASA chief warns of possible job cuts

[Algorem]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23397408/

Several thousand could be unemployed after shuttle flies last mission in ’10


updated 7:18 p.m. ET, Thurs., Feb. 28, 2008

WASHINGTON - Several thousand NASA contractors in Florida and Louisiana could be out of work once the space shuttle flies its last mission in 2010, the head of the U.S. space agency told a Senate panel Feb. 27.

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said Florida's Kennedy Space Center stands to lose "several thousand" contractor jobs following the space shuttle's retirement from service. While some of those jobs will return as NASA begins flying the space shuttle's successor — the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and the Ares 1 rocket — the new system, by design, is expected to require fewer people to operate than the labor-intensive space shuttle.

Orion and Ares are not expected to begin operations until early 2015, although flight tests out of the Kennedy could begin a few years earlier.


The space shuttle program employs roughly 14,000 people at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Griffin said Kennedy would need to take on new roles and responsibilities beyond launch operations if it wants to maintain it current workforce levels post-shuttle...



Statement by NASA Administrator Griffin Before the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Aeronautics and Related Sciences Committee on Commerce

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=27182

STATUS REPORT
Date Released: Friday, February 29, 2008
Source: NASA HQ



Statement of Michael D. Griffin Administrator National Aeronautics and Space Administration before the Subcommittee on Space, Aeronautics and Related Sciences Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation United States Senate

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear today to discuss the President's FY 2009 budget request for NASA. The President's budget request for NASA is $17.6 billion, a 2.9 percent increase over the net budget authority enacted for 2008, along with a steady, five-year runout commensurate with inflation. This increase demonstrates the President's commitment to funding the balanced priorities he set forth for the Agency in space exploration, Earth and space science, and aeronautics research. We are making steady progress in achieving these goals. I ask for your continued support as you consider the President's FY 2009 budget request for NASA.

When I testified before this Subcommittee last year, I spoke about the Administration's balanced priorities for our Nation's civil space and aeronautics research goals as set forth by the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-155) and the Vision for Space Exploration. NASA's mandate is clear, and the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, as well as the level of funding appropriated to NASA in FY 2008, tells me that Congress broadly endorses the balanced set of programs the Agency has put forward in this era of limited budget growth.

I have said this in other forums, but it warrants repeating here: at present funding levels, NASA's budget is sufficient to support a variety of excellent space programs, but it cannot support all of the potential programs we could execute. No plan or level of funding can fully satisfy all the many constituencies we have. Balanced choices must be made. But they cannot continually be remade and revisited if there is to be steady progress toward our common, defined objectives...

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&um=1&tab=wn&q=Michael+D.+Griffin,nasa&ie=UTF-8&scoring=n

[Vanje]

1. How'r we going to get to Mars

Didnt Bush say we were going to send people to Mars?
Bush has only 326 days left to get that spaceship to Mars.

Maybe he expects more help from Jesus than NASA for his Mars legacy.

Then again, he was probably kidding about the whole thing anyway.

[Phoonzang]

2. Is this a surprise?

No shuttle = no need for people who run the shuttle. Of course they could have had a replacement vehicle ready (at least one that didn't look like something from 1962) or other positions for those people....but really....it's NASA. Same people who've wasted the last 20 years doing nothing to advance manned space flight.

[Johonny]

3. replacement vehicle ready

They are they're called Delta IV, Atlas V and Falcon 1. As for advancing manned space flight? There really isn't any place for it to go. Near Earth Orbit is about all they will ever do for a long, long time.

[Algorem]

4. why can't they come up with vehicles like the aliens have?

earthlings always win the Mr. Universe annd Miss Universe titles every year,decade after decade,and yet we can't seem to come up with a decent space vehicle.

[seasat]

5. Well they could fully fund the EOS program and employ a few of those folks.

Our idiot king has defunded the Earth Observing System over his terms. It was providing such pesky information like how the greenhouse gas theory of global warming is valid and other environmental problems. IMHO, they never wanted to go to Mars, they only wanted an excuse to defund NASA's Earth observatory. We're now left with a group of out of date and failing satellites with no future launches. A recent study said that it would take about 40 billion to bring the EOS program back to where it should be.