More than 4,000 persons headed to a rally at the Cocoa Expo on Sunday calling for extension of the shuttle program, continuing flights to the moon and mars and maintaining America’s leadership in space. The rally comes several days before President Obama is due to visit the Space Coast on Thursday where he is expected to make a major policy speech on space and articulate the future of America’s human space flight program.
Workers at the the Kennedy Space Center have grave concerns that, with the scrapping of the Constellation program by year’s end, an estimated 8,000 jobs will be lost. Many argue that most of these jobs would not be replaced and the consequences would be devastating for the Space Coast and surrounding areas.
“We’ve got something worth fighting for, don’t we?” said Brevard County Commissioner Robin Fisher to cheers from the crowd, as he led off the political speakers. “We’ve got to be first. Russia’s got to play second.”
Republicans and Democrats at least agree on this issue and gave an undertaking at the rally to fight for more space funding.
Meanwhile, NASA has said that notwithstanding the planned wind down of the shuttle program, other new programs and rocket technology are being contemplated which could actually lead to an increase in jobs.
