As Americans waved bye-bye to the last space shuttle lifting off from Florida this morning, the country also bid farewell to much more.
Giovanni Pinzon is an aerospace technician and says that the end of the space shuttle program also signals the end to thousands of jobs, among other things. Careers will disappear and talents will erode as skills necessary for the space program go unused.Also on the run, says Pinzon, are the people of Florida. “As people [are] going to other parts of the country, its going to be hard to get those skills back for when the space program takes off again,” says Pinzon. While Floridians will take off in search of new jobs, who will pick up where they left off? Thousands of Americans are expected to go unemployed and as other nations continue their shuttle programs, it looks as though yet another American institution is being outsourced.“We’ve pretty much outsourced everything else,” says Pinzon. He says that with America out of the picture, Russia and China will lead a new space race, something he calls a mistake.As those countries employ technicians like Pinzon, they will be getting more out of it than just some new rockets. “NASA has developed a lot of technology that the public is not even aware of,” he says. In that case, the next big breakthrough will be left for other countries to identify. All the while, Pinzon and his peers will try to find another use for their aerospace experience elsewhere in America.