Huntsville to gain more space jobs?? This probably won't pan out as painted in this article but there could be some interesting devlopments for sure.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-ksc-nasa-huntsville-workers-030409,0,429110.story
TALLAHASSEE - Aerospace-industry leaders plan to tell Florida legislators today that unless some miracle takes place to breathe new life into the space business at Cape Canaveral, the state's most skilled workers will almost certainly be leaving in droves to take jobs in Alabama.
Thousands of top engineers are needed by 2011 at the Missile Defense Agency, an arm of the Pentagon in charge of developing an integrated U.S. missile-defense system for the country. The agency is moving its operations from its current home in northern Virginia to Huntsville, Ala.
Already NASA's shuttle contractor, United Space Alliance, is negotiating with the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce to find work for many space-shuttle engineers when the shuttle program ends 18 months from now.
The brain drain will be a huge blow to Florida and especially Brevard County, which is already braced for the hardship that the end of the shuttle program will bring to the area. At least 3,500 workers at Kennedy Space Center are in line to lose their jobs by the end of next year.
NASA insiders say the shuttle contractor USA has been talking to the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce about securing jobs with the Missile Defense Agency after the shuttle is retired as a way to keep their top workers in the shuttle program until the very end.
By 2011, the Missile Defense Agency will employ more than half of its 9,000-employee work force in Alabama as part of a massive Defense Department reorganization.
"We are working with our government and the United Space Alliance to recruit and attract workers from their operations [in Florida] and across the country as they become available," said Lucia Cape, vice president for work force at the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce.
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