Today at Kennedy Space Center, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and NASA officials are expected to meet with about a dozen shuttle contractors to discuss the area's post-shuttle future.
Around noon, Locke and NASA Associate Deputy Administrator Charles Scales are expected to meet with a group of engineers and technicians from United Space Alliance, The Boeing Co. and ASRC Aerospace Corp. who have been given notice that they could be laid off within months.
The officials plan to listen to the workers' talk about their job plans and to discuss administration efforts to support the area, including a $40 million task force to help diversify the region's economy.
The task force is due to present President Obama with recommendations by Aug. 15.
Locke will also tour the center's Space Life Sciences Lab, which prepares some science experiments for shuttle flights and processes them after their return.
KSC sees that type of work and related space research and development becoming a bigger part of its future as NASA transitions to new launch vehicles. Two more shuttle flights are scheduled, and a third is under consideration.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
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