ENROLLED
       2010 Legislature                                         SM 1896
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                                             20101896er
    1  
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to support any commercial, civil,
    4         military, or academic endeavor, including job training
    5         and placement, which will enable the United States
    6         space program to maintain, to the greatest extent
    7         possible, our nation’s only human space flight
    8         workforce.
    9  
   10         WHEREAS, the space shuttle first began flying from Florida
   11  in 1981, and
   12         WHEREAS, Florida is the home of the nation’s only human
   13  space flight workforce, and
   14         WHEREAS, our nation’s prowess in space suffered when the
   15  Apollo program was abruptly terminated, followed by a lengthy
   16  gap in time before the onset of the Space Shuttle Program, and
   17         WHEREAS, this nation did not sufficiently facilitate
   18  alternate commercial, civil, military, or academic endeavors,
   19  including job training and placement, in Florida to preserve the
   20  skills of the Apollo workforce so that they could be put to use
   21  on the Space Shuttle Program, and
   22         WHEREAS, the unemployed, highly skilled Apollo workforce
   23  was forced to dissipate and find employment elsewhere, and
   24         WHEREAS, the Space Shuttle Program was forced, in large
   25  part and at great expense, to use a new and untested workforce
   26  for space shuttle launch operations, and
   27         WHEREAS, the Space Shuttle Program is slated to retire in
   28  2010 and there is currently a gap of at least 5 years between
   29  space shuttle retirement and the next American human space
   30  flight, and
   31         WHEREAS, the United States should not repeat the mistakes
   32  made at the end of the Apollo program, NOW, THEREFORE,
   33  
   34  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   35  
   36         That the United States Congress is urged to facilitate any
   37  commercial, civil, military, or academic endeavor, including job
   38  training and placement, which will maintain this nation’s highly
   39  skilled human space flight operations workforce, which currently
   40  resides in Florida.
   41         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   42  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   43  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   44  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
   45  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.