There are a couple of reports on Space Day, an annual event in Tallahassee designed to allow Florida’ aerospace industry to promote itself. This year’s event was apparently a somewhat gloomy affair as the industry copes with potential job loss and a changing technological environment:
Florida Today reports:
Scores of aerospace executives and a pair of astronauts are working the Florida Capitol today to promote awareness of how important space exploration is to the state’s economic health and scientific future.
This year’s Space Day is clouded by economic uncertainties, with the Space Shuttle program slated to end next year and the state facing extremely hard financial times. Thousands of Brevard-based engineers and missile technicians could be looking for new jobs soon, and the Missile Defense Agency in Alabama is likely to pick up many of them.
Astronauts Al Worden and Peggy Whitson joined the 80 company executives and local officials celebrating Space Day at the Legislature.
The Orlando Sentinel was even more downbeat:
News that that huge numbers of top skilled jobs could be lost from Kennedy Space to Alabama, and criticism surrounding the state’s aerospace development body, Space Florida, are likely to dominate discussions with lawmakers throughout the day. Adding to the woes, the chairman of Space Florida, Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp is steeped in scandal surrounding his use of state planes for family trips.
The event is supposed to be an opportunity for leaders of the country’s space industry to promote space issues with state legislators. Chief among the priorities of this year’s event is “Preserve highly skilled space program workers.” But that task is looking increasingly grim with the space shuttle due to retire next year and no replacement rocket on the horizon to take its place for at least five years.
Hang in there. Things may look bad now, but its possible that with officials realizing the scale of the potential problems, they take effective actions to address them.
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