'Save Space': We're Not Anti-Obama, We're Pro-Florida

Thousands rallied in Brevard County on Sunday to keep jobs at the Kennedy Space Center.

The "Save Space" event, which opened with a series of religious hymns and invocations at Cocoa Expo, featured speeches by U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, U.S. Reps. Bill Posey and Suzanne Kosmas, Florida Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos and Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp.

Also on hand were retired shuttle astronauts Jon McBride, Winston Scott and Bob Springer.

Afterwards, Kottkamp told me, "There was a loud, clear message from the community that President Obama needs to rethink his position" on space.

The collective call for a continued commitment to manned space flight -- and Florida jobs -- came in advance of Obama's scheduled visit to KSC on Thursday. His proposed phase-out of the shuttle program and cancellation of the Constellation project could terminate up to 9,000 positions at the space center.

Event organizers said a sizable contingent of space workers might have been reluctant to buck the president in public as long as plans for space spending and staffing are up in the air. Sunday's crowd fell about 1,000 short of filling the 5,000-seat Cocoa Expo.

Frank DiBello, director of Space Florida, said he was "very supportive" of the rally, which he emphasized was "not anti-president."

"It's a show of strength of commitment and passion in this community," DiBello said.

But, he noted, "There's a lot more heavy lifting to do before we have confidence that jobs will be maintained."

Ironically, the impending phase-out of the shuttle comes as the program is enjoying its safest run.

NASA records show the number of problems encountered by Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour have declined significantly since the Columbia accident in 2003. The data for 18 post-Columbia flights include both in-flight "anomalies" and on-the-ground glitches.

During the shuttle program, which began with its first launch 29 years ago Monday, 14 astronauts have been killed and two orbiters have been destroyed.

Four shuttle flights remain on the schedule -- including the current Discovery mission -- with the last launch due in mid-September.

After that, U.S. astronauts traveling to the International Space Station will have to hitch a ride on Russian Soyuz space taxis at Moscow's newly raised price of $56 million per seat. (Yep, that's dollars, not rubles.)