NASA Halves KSC Job Cuts Forecast

This just in from Eun Kim of Gannett News Service in Washington, D.C.:

Kennedy Space Center could lose about 3,500 jobs following the retirement of the spaces shuttles in two years, according to revised NASA estimates released today. The figure reflects about half the number of layoffs originally predicted earlier this year.

The number of KSC employees could drop to as low as 4,500 in 2011, the year after the shuttles are grounded, according to the new NASA estimates. However, KSC would pick up an additional 500 jobs over each of the following two years because of work provided by the shuttle's replacement, the Constellation project, the agency said in a report released to Congress.

You can read the full 34-page report here (1.4 MB file): Work Force Forecast.

NASA originally projected in an April report that KSC could shed as many as 6,400 jobs.

However, during a Senate field hearing held two months later at Kennedy, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin altered his estimate to “three to four thousand,” a prediction reflected in today's report.

Griffin at the time said he expected to locate sustaining engineering work for the Constellation program at KSC.

U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney, the Oviedo Republican whose district includes KSC, said he hasn't seen the detailed numbers but was pleased with the revised figures.

"I'm glad the original estimate of job losses appears to be now dramatically higher than anticipated," he said. "Additionally, I'm very happy that the anticipated needs for Constellation are significantly bigger than originally anticipated and they mean...additional jobs being kept at Kennedy Space Center."

Feeney said the report also reflects that "the biggest opportunity is in collateral aerospace -- private and nonprofit and commercial ventures, whether it's in space tourism, research or other activities located at Kennedy Space Center."

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson also was encouraged by the numbers.

"This is better than losing 6,400 jobs, but it's still a cut that's going to hurt," said Nelson, the Orlando Democrat who has pushed NASA to offset job losses at KSC by bringing in other types of work, such as research and development initiatives.

"We also have to close the gap between the shuttle and its replacement, because a decline in the country's space program is a decline in America's scientific and technological leadership."