Study Says 11,800 Jobs to be Created Per Year by Commercial Space Flight

By Nancy Atkinson - April 13, 2010 12:14 PM UTC | Space Policy

[/caption] The Commercial Spaceflight Federations says that an independent study reveals the new NASA Commercial Crew and Cargo Program funding proposed in the space agency's FY2011 Budget Request will result in an average of 11,800 direct jobs per year over the next five years, nationwide. "The Tauri Group's analysis indicates a peak of 14,200 direct jobs in FY2012" said Brett Alexander, Commercial Spaceflight Federation President, "will result from the design and development of capsules to take astronauts to and from the International Space Station, 'human rating' of rockets, upgrades to launch infrastructure at Cape Canaveral, launch vehicle manufacturing, and demonstration launches during the development phase."

The Tauri Group estimates that from NASA's proposed spending of $5.8 billion on Commercial Crew and an additional $312 million on Commercial Cargo from FY2011 to FY2015 will create the jobs .

The study used a government economic impact model developed by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and provides average job figures resulting from the assessment of over 50 possible program competition outcomes. The job figures considered only the proposed new NASA funding of $6.1 billion under the Commercial Crew and Commercial Cargo budget lines, so the job figures do not include additional private investment above the NASA funding.

Additionally, jobs created by operational flights of commercial crew vehicles following their development were not included in this study, nor were activities funded under the existing Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program funding of $500 million and the follow-on operational cargo flights to the International Space Station under the $3.5 billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program. Indirect and induced jobs in the communities surrounding these activities were also not included, with only direct jobs being counted.

The Tauri Group study results can be downloaded from the Tauri Group website.

Source:

Commercial Spaceflight Federation

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com