Obama worries cities relying on space jobs

The new direction has stirred more than paycheck concerns, though. Some in Huntsville, Alabama, home of the program in which German rocket scientists first figured out how to send people to the moon, believe the shift could crush America's spaceflight psyche.

“People here care about going to the moon. The last thing they want to do is have our astronauts become cargo on some company's space ship,” said Dale Jackson, host of a morning radio show WVNN in Huntsville, which is nicknamed “Rocket City.”

There are 2,500 people working at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville on the US$100 billion moon project, dubbed Constellation. Those jobs aren't in any immediate danger because Congress still must approve Obama's budget proposal, but the president's plan was certainly a jolt to the area.

The Constellation program, proposed by former President George W. Bush after the 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster, includes the construction of two types of rockets and a crew capsule. The plan, however, has been criticized for being expensive and based on existing technologies.

The White House's new proposal was short on details, such as where astronauts would fly next and on what type of rocketship. The whole idea troubles people like Brenda Mulberry, who owns a store that sells souvenirs outside Kennedy Space Center.

At the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, a state-owned museum in Huntsville, Nathan Swick's jaw fell when he learned the administration wanted to end Constellation, which includes building the rockets Ares I and Ares V.

“What about the moon?” said Swick, a teacher in town with a group of students who attend a science and technology academy at Spring Ridge Middle School in Lexington Park, Md. “I have a picture of (Ares) in my room.”

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle asked Obama to reconsider the decision and several Alabama congressmen have also criticized the president's decision. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and chairman of the Senate space subcommittee, said he will hold a hearing later this month to see if Congress can rescue some parts of the Ares rocket programs.

At Marshall, where the Ares I rocket is in development, director Robert Lightfoot said the technology would be used in other projects. Still, people were disappointed.

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