24: SPACE COAST LIVING | SPACECOASTLIVING.COM
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER
CELEBRATES 60 YEARS
build our company’s leadership beyond gravity,”
she said.
DAYS NOT SO HAPPY
Lessons learned were often hard. During the space
shuttle program, Brevard thrived under NASA’s
munificence. In 2008, the average salary for an
on-site worker at Kennedy Space Center was, at
$77,235, nearly double the county’s average wage
at the time.
The good days were not to last, unfortunately.
The flight of space shuttle Atlantis in July 2011
marked the end of the program, and Brevard’s
unemployment rate rose to 11.2 percent, more
than one percentage point above the state average
that year.
The end of the space shuttle era rippled through
the economy, from restaurants to retail stores, but
thanks to the efforts of the EDC and Space Florida,
private companies interested in commercial
alternatives took notice. The fact that Brevard was
NASA/SPACE X
In May, Space X’s Crew Dragon returned to Earth after a successful six-month stay at the International Space Station.
>>
Orion’s heat shield, a
critical element, protects
the capsule and the
astronauts inside during
re-entry through Earth’s
atmosphere, when
temperatures can hike
close to 5,000 degrees
Fahrenheit, half as hot
as the Sun.
NASA/LOCKHEED MARTIN
/SPACECOASTLIVING.COM