Pres. Obama to outline 'new course' for NASA at Thursday event
However, the White House's proposed overhaul of NASA's funding
structure has so far piqued many members of Congress, some of
whom charge it would leave the agency without a clearly defined
mission or means to get there.  Among early the early critics
are Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tx.) and David Vitter (R-La.),
who have questioned the logic behind the administration's
emphasis on research and have promised to fight the end of the
shuttle program.  Still others fear the effective end of NASA's
shuttle program will result in thousands of lost jobs, at
Kennedy Space Center or elsewhere. Bolden himself confirmed as
much in an interview with reporters last week, noting he felt
the elimination of agency positions was a "very serious and real
concern."  "But this is what we call progress, unfortunately,"
Bolden said. "If you look at every area of technology in this
country, as you advance there are fewer and fewer manual-type
jobs. That's what happen