When the U.S. space shuttle program finally shuts down and the final launch is complete, space workers are going to need a job and they may not have to travel far to find one. Some may end up working in a related field, maybe building the next generation of flight vehicles with a private contractor. But for many workers at Florida‘s Kennedy Space Center, the future had been uncertain at best until now. Now workers are seeing at least one possible option from an unlikely source.
Carnival Cruise Lines recently announced they were moving 2,052-passenger Carnival Ecstasy from Galveston, Texas to Port Canaveral, just down the street from where space workers have been making a living for decades.
Along with Carnival Ecstasy comes hundreds if not thousands of jobs building a new $30 million cruise terminal, dock and more.
No, we’re probably not going to see one of the astronauts or flight directors in the construction process, but for 8,000 space workers who will lose their jobs, this adds one choice to a very short list of options.
Look for displaced space workers to find other jobs in aerospace too as aviation companies are drawn to the area. Aviation companies soon to break ground at new facilities in Florida include AAR Corp and MidairUSA who noted that the skilled work force was a big advantage over other communities they were considering.