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Endeavour's Launch is One Step Closer to the End for Shuttle Workers


April 17, 2011 | WMFE - Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Kennedy Space Center Monday morning on its final flight. The mission was delayed by more than two weeks because of a technical problem. Hundreds of thousands of people flocked to the Space Coast to see the next-to-last shuttle launch ever. It was an historic day, but for many Brevard County locals, it was also one step closer to an unknown and insecure future.


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Visitors clogged the roads and lined up at viewing points around Kennedy Space Center to see the liftoff Monday at 8:56am. Observers cheered, even though they could only see the shuttle for about twenty seconds before it disappeared into a cloud bank.

There’s one more shuttle mission left before the end of the shuttle program, but this was the last liftoff for Endeavour, the youngest spacecraft in the shuttle fleet. Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach says that’s a big deal for the shuttle employees who work exclusively on that orbiter.

“This was their only final launch,” Leinbach said, “Those folks are looking back on the history of Endeavour with fondness and probably a few tears today.”

It was also a bittersweet moment for former astronaut Bruce Melnick, who flew on Endeavour’s very first mission back in 1992. 

“It’s really sad.  She’s got a lot of life left in her,” Melnick said, “and it’s just a shame that we’re shutting the program down.”

Thousands of NASA contractors are dreading that shutdown as well, since it means an end to careers that have spanned decades.  Jerry Mulberry was laid off from his position with shuttle contractor United Space Alliance in early April, after more than thirty years on the job.

“You prepare yourself as best you can,” Mulberry said, “but it still hurt.  It’s funny, I talked to a friend of mine who I worked with over the years … and he said, yeah, I’ve got another job, but it’s just a job.”

Mulberry and his wife Brenda run a store called Space Shirts, just outside one of the entrances to Kennedy Space Center.  It makes custom t-shirts for each space shuttle launch, and Mulberry says it stands to lose ten percent of its business when the shuttle program ends.

Most of the people who work directly for NASA at Kennedy Space Center will be able to stay at the Center in some capacity, but Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach says, the place won’t be the same. 

“It’s going to be a lot more empty than it is today,” Leinbach said, “and it’ll be a lot less fun to be working in, because it won’t have that excitement of working on the shuttle program anymore.”

Many shuttle contractors don’t know exactly when their last day will be, since the date for the final shuttle launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis has been up in the air because of Endeavour’s delay.  Things may become a little clearer before long, though, because NASA says it should be able to firm up the target date for the Atlantis liftoff by next week.

 

 

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