HOUSTON — What does NASA’s new budget really mean for the economy of the region and the agency’s 3,265 employees and work force of 14,000 contractors at the Johnson Space Center?
Members of Texas’ congressional delegation and the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, a group that represents contracting companies that depend on Johnson Space Center, are lobbying the White House and other members of Congress to change their minds about ending Constellation, NASA’s mission to send humans back to the moon.
They claim the end of Constellation could result in thousands of job losses and the end of U.S. domination in space. But some associated with Johnson Space Center’s past and present argue fighting for the survival of the space shuttle program, not Constellation, should be their mission — if saving jobs is the goal of Constellation’s supporters.
“A lot of those jobs are in Colorado and other parts of the country,” George Abbey, a former director of the Johnson Space Center, said about Constellation’s effect on the local economy.
If the Bay Area Houston Partnership and Texas’ congressional delegation are concerned with jobs leaving the region and the future of U.S. space exploration, they should be advocating for the continuation of the space shuttle program, he said.
Abbey, who is the senior fellow in space policy at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, is an unabashed fan of the shuttle program. He said he thinks Constellation was a mistake.
“We were going backward with Constellation,” Abbey said.
“Why go to the moon?” he said. “ We’ve been there and done that.”
If NASA’s mission is to get humans to Mars, building upon the existing infrastructure of the space shuttle is a cost-effective way to go, he said.
“It’s a unique vehicle,” Abbey said.
It would cost about $2.4 billion a year to keep the United States in the business of manned space flight, while private industry developed a replacement or an extensive overhaul of the shuttle, he said. Abbey also said NASA could make money off the shuttle by finding commercial uses for it.
“We’re wasting what we have,” Abbey said.
Russia’s Soyuz and spacecraft being developed by China and India also do not have the cargo-carrying and scientific experiment capabilities of the space shuttle, Abbey said. “There’s nothing out there like it.”
Jobs Still Lost
Even if Constellation wasn’t canceled, the 11,500 JSC employees and contractors working on the space shuttle would be at risk of losing their jobs from the shutdown of the shuttle program, Abbey said.
Abbey compared the International Space Station, which will not be canceled, to Constellation. The International Space Station was successful because NASA’s international partners shared the costs, Abbey said.
But NASA declined to invite other countries to share costs on Constellation, and the United States can’t afford to pay for it now, he said. In Abbey’s opinion, former NASA administrators Sean O’Keefe and Mike Griffin and the Bush administration’s move to cancel the shuttle program and underfunding for Constellation are to blame for potential space shuttle-related job losses in the region.
However, the Obama Administration’s increased budget for NASA, focus on space exploration and developing new technologies is a positive move for NASA, he said.
“Constellation didn’t bring many jobs to the area,” he said.
Lockheed Martin is building the Orion spacecraft for Constellation, and some of the work is being done in the region.
“The economic impact of canceling the Orion project could be significant,” Linda Singleton, a spokeswoman for Lockheed Martin’s Orion program,” said.
“There are 4,300 people working on Orion across the country” she said. “Nearly 700 of those people work in the Houston area.”
Singleton said officials at Lockheed Martin did not know how many jobs it potentially could add to its Houston offices from projects stemming from NASA’s increased budget.
Still, losses could hit the region.
“We expect to shed up to a thousand jobs, but under 2,000, with the end of the space shuttle program,” Boeing spokesman Ed Memy said.
Boeing also has a contract to work on Constellation, but those jobs are in Alabama, he said. The Chicago-based company expects to add 70 jobs to its Houston office with the extension of the International Space Station. Boeing won an $18 million contract to work on NASA’s reoriented budget, Memy said. The funds for Boeing’s contract come from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, popularly known as the stimulus bill.
“We hope it can expand to something bigger,” Memy said.
U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, is one of Galveston County’s voices in Congress. A former U.S. Navy pilot and a Clear Lake High School graduate, Olson is against ending Constellation. He said he thought President Barack Obama should have used some of the stimulus money for NASA’s budget.
“I think we’re throwing away $11.5 billion,” Olson said of the money already spent on Constellation. And Galveston County could lose thousands of jobs, and there could be a trickle-down effect to other industries and businesses in the region if Constellation is shutdown, Olson said. That money should go to Constellation instead of unproven private companies developing space craft that wouldn’t take us back to the moon to lay the ground work for a future trip to Mars, he said.
Olson said when Republicans controlled Congress in 2004, they didn’t give Constellation enough funding to get to the moon.
“We didn’t give them enough resources to get the mission done,” he said. “We’re making NASA pay for our problems.”
Olson generally favors less government, but NASA’s interests should come before private interests in the case of Constellation, he said.
“The stakes are too high,” Olson said.
Besides harming private companies, Olson cited national security concerns and inspiring the nation’s students to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics as reasons Constellation should be continued.
“I’d keep the shuttle, ” Nick Lampson, a Democrat who was unseated by Olson, said.
Lampson echoed some of George Abbey’s thoughts on the shuttle program.
“Senator (Kay Bailey) Hutchinson could have introduced legislation in 2004 to improve the shuttle’s capabilities or at least keep much of its infrastructure after the shuttle program ended,” Lampson said.
Hutchinson, R-Texas, introduced a bill in Congress on March 3 to extend the life of the space shuttle program.
In Need Of A Vision
In 2008, after Lampson was voted out of office, he was rumored to be a candidate for NASA administrator. Lampson said he thought NASA’s focus had suffered since Constellation was announced in 2004.
“What’s our vision?” Lampson asked. “Do we want NASA’s focus to be science, exploration of space, developing new technologies or going to Mars?”
Once Congress and the White House figured out that issue, then the issue of what type of jobs the Johnson Space Center would lose or gain would be resolved, he said.
“Right now, the guy who packs the astronauts’ packs, the paraprofessionals and technicians who work on the shuttle — that’s who’s going to lose their jobs with the end of the shuttle program.”
If Obama’s budget for NASA is approved by Congress, the region could see more science and engineering jobs added to the region, Lampson said.
“I hope that no one thinks Obama’s doing this for political reasons,” he said. “We knew the space shuttle program was going to end for the past six years.”
The United Space Alliance is the primary contracting company for the space shuttle program’s operations and employs most of the Johnson Space Center’s shuttle workers.
On Feb. 24, Michael Snyder, a senior engineer with the United Space Alliance, testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation’s Subcommittee on Science and Space. In his testimony, he asked Congress to give NASA a well defined focus because morale among workers was the lowest he had seen in his 13 years with the space shuttle program. For Snyder human space flight was that focus.
Back in Houston, Snyder said he heard 1,400 to 1,500 jobs could be lost with the end of the shuttle program.
“A lot of us would have lost jobs even if Constellation was kept in place,” he said.
But Snyder said he also expected a lot of United Space Alliance employees to transition to the Constellation program.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“In an ideal world, we’d keep the shuttle program online until it was replaced,” he said.
