HOUSTON — After NASA’s final nighttime space shuttle launch in the pre-dawn hours Monday, Administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. was at the Johnson Space Center for an afternoon "all hands on deck" meeting to address workers’ concerns about the cancellation of the Constellation and Ares V programs, which were supposed to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020.
After the meeting with JSC workers, Bolden, along with JSC Director Michael L. Coats, met with reporters. They said the plan to reorient NASA’s focus from shuttle launches to exploration and discovery was going to take weeks, not months and that the agency would use lessons learned and technology developed from Constellation and Ares V programs for an eventual return to the moon and beyond.
An estimated 14,000 contract workers and 3,265 NASA employees are expected to be affected by the end of the Constellation and Ares V programs, Coats said.
"We’re at the very beginning of the process to see how many jobs are going to be lost," Bolden added.
Bolden said he wasn’t sure how many jobs will come to JSC with NASA’s new focus and that he expected to know in the coming weeks. But Bolden gave a hint of what to expect.
He said he told workers at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., that as little as 1,200 and as many as 5,000 jobs would be added there with the changes coming to NASA.
"The workers are hurting," Bolden said, when asked about the mood in his meeting with JSC employees.
Bolden and Coats said JSC would continue to focus on activities related to space flight and astronaut training, because of NASA’s work with the International Space Station and contract with Russia to use its space shuttle until 2013, when, officials hope, U.S.-based private companies will have developed space craft to send astronauts back into space.
Bolden emphasized NASA’s new approach would free up its workers to explore space and develop technologies and he is looking for new ideas within the agency for space exploration.
"I said no holds barred, Bolden said. "The door is open to any suggestions for new and enhanced ways that will get us to the moon and beyond in an efficient and quicker manner."
