Post date: Oct 31, 2011 9:12:28 PM
Boeing plans to build space taxis at Kennedy Space Center, bringing hundreds of jobs to central Florida.
CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 31, 2011) (NASA TV)- Boeing Co will bring hundreds of jobs to Florida by basing a program to develop passenger spaceships at the Kennedy Space Center, first for NASA and later for commercial use, officials said on Monday (October 31).
Boeing's plans will ease some of the pain over thousands of job losses in the so-called Space Coast region of central Florida from the end of NASA's space shuttle program earlier this year.
Boeing will ramp up its workforce to about 550 by 2015 to make, test and operate the seven-passenger spaceships, called CST-100s, said John Mulholland, vice president and program manager of commercial programs for Boeing Space Exploration.
"With the partnership of NASA and adequate funding from Congress, we can deliver a commercial crew transportation system to the International Space Station that is safe, affordable, reliable, and available in 2015," said Mulholland at a ceremony at the former space shuttle processing hangar where the new venture will be based.
"Today, I'm happy to announce that the Boeing Company has selected Florida for its commercial crew program office," he added.
The company currently employs about 200 people on the CST-100 program nationwide, including 30 in Florida.
Space Florida, a state-backed agency working to expand space-related businesses, is a partner in the project, serving as Boeing's landlord.
"If anyone had any doubts that Kennedy Space Center would remain open for business, this agreement allowing Space Florida to lay the groundwork for a world-class commercial space industry here should put that notion to rest," said NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver.
"But even before we formed this new partnership, the Obama administration recognized how important the Space Coast is as a center of environmental, entrepreneurial, and space flight innovation," said Garver.
The Obama administration is requesting 850 million U.S. dollars for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 to invest in commercial passenger spaceships.
With the shuttle fleet's retirement, the United States is dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, a 100 billion U.S. dollar project of 16 nations that orbits 240 miles (386 km) above Earth.
Turning over transportation to and from the space station to private firms is designed to free up NASA money for a heavy-lift rocket and deep-space capsule that can travel to asteroids, the moon, and other destinations beyond the station.
Russia currently charges NASA about 350 million U.S. dollars a year for space flight services.