Shuttle Layoffs

Last Friday, NASA sent out the first 160 layoff notices of the shuttle program. A total of 900 jobs are on the line as the shuttle program winds down.

As reported in this blog last week, an effort to extend the program beyond the current 2010 deadline is already moving through Congress. One justification for extending the program is to close the gap between the last shuttle flight and the first Orion mission. The effort is being spearheaded by Florida representatives, however, and they make it clear they also want to save jobs at Kennedy Space Center.

Politicians trying to save their constituents' jobs is nothing new, of course. There's nothing wrong with it, at least not in isolation. The case can be made, however, that the U. S. should have moved beyond the shuttle years ago. The proper final destination for shuttle Columbia after twenty years of service was the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D. C.-- not scattered in bits over central Texas. Congress failed to develop a rational space policy, and at least three presidents failed to lead. Now, Congress might try to squeeze every last ounce out of a thirty year old system, even though the remaining shuttles are not that old, and to do it for a mix of reasons. Hopefully, when the shuttle era is finally over, there will still be three intact shuttles for museum display.