Obama Kills NASA, Thousands More Jobless, Space Coast in Ruins

Alright, the title is hyperbole. But just as well.

The rumors have been swirling, it’s official now. The Obama administration has canceled the Constellation program.

If you didn’t know, this program is the shuttle replacement. AKA, the only way we (the U.S.) have to get people into space once the shuttle retires. Without this, we will be reliant on the Russians to get us into space. Or maybe the Chinese once their burgeoning space program can handle it.

What the heck?

This is particularly galling since President Obama, when he was candidate Obama, came to the Space Coast looking for votes. At that time, he made the promise to promote space advocacy.

My favorite quotes:

“Here’s what I’m committing to: Continue Constellation. We’re going to close the gap (between the end of shuttle flight and the next program, Constellation). We may have additional shuttle flights,” he said.

and

“Under my watch, NASA will inspire the world once again and is going to help grow the economy right here in Brevard County,”

Obama is, supposedly, all about job creation… well, that is “saving or creating jobs”. Funny that. There were already going to be 7,000 jobs lost on the Space Coast because of the end of the shuttle program. There are countless others that will be unemployed with the Constellation cancellation between NASA and contractor employees.

What we get instead is a light rail project from Tampa to Orlando. Great, thanks for that. We can put our hypergolics, cryogenics, and rocketry engineers to work digging trenches and laying rails in Tampa. But, obviously, they’ll have to move to Tampa to do that.

When the Apollo program ended, the Brevard County economy collapsed. That’s what we can expect when these thousands of people receive their pink slips. We are a space center with no space vehicles. A launch facility with nothing to launch. Is that what the Obama administration really means? Kill off the good jobs to be replaced with low paying, low skill construction jobs? Kill a local economy or two in the mean time??

The administration is trying to soften the blow to our national space interests by saying they will support private companies trying to go to space and that these companies will create jobs. It’s crazy. A favorite saying, “Tis better a bird in hand than two in the bush” applies here. We have thousands of highly trained, high paying jobs right here that will be eliminated, to be replaced by some nebulous plan to employ some in the future.

This is a travesty. It isn’t even about the jobs or the money. This is our future as a people. 40 years ago we could send men to the moon. Soon we won’t even be able to send them to space. Is this what has become of the greatest nation? Is this the legacy we want to leave our kids?

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