Though President Barack Obama's budget is generous to NASA, thousands of jobs likely will be lost at Kennedy Space Center after 2010 -- just as the nation is predicted to emerge from the present recession.
Additionally, the budget does not close the five-year gap between the end of the shuttle program and the next space vehicle, which will require an estimated 3,500 fewer workers.

"There is a jobs gap in there as well as the flight gap," said Dale Ketcham, director of the University of Central Florida's Spaceport Research & Technology Institute at KSC.
Ketcham said Obama delivered the funding he promised -- a total increase of $2.4 billion over the 2008 level -- but Obama called for shuttle flights to end in 2010, rather than be extended simply to preserve jobs.
"Given the colossal budget constraints they're under, from an agency perspective, we still have to declare victory," Ketcham said.

The timing of the massive layoffs could affect voters' choices in the U.S. Senate and Florida governor races, he added.
In addition to a new spaceflight program, the Obama budget also funds global climate change research, robotic exploration, support of the International Space Station and aeronautics research.
As the shuttle program ends, Brevard County officials plan new efforts to mitigate job losses. "That's where the money's targeted, and we're going to ask what can we do to help leverage or exploit it to opportunities that can take place in Florida," said Lynda Weatherman, president and chief executive of the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast.

The EDC will look at possible technical programs within the federal government and private industry to bring jobs to Brevard. "We're going to go beyond just NASA," Weatherman said.
State Sen. Thad Altman of Viera welcomed the $2.4 billion NASA funding increase over 2008 but said much work remains to preserve jobs at KSC. "I would hope that they take the money and grow programs at those NASA centers that are losing jobs," Altman said.

The next NASA administrator, who has not been named, will have much to say about how and where the NASA budget is spent.
Altman said, "$2.4 billion is a lot of jobs."

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