Independent Analysis Shows 11,800 Direct Jobs and $6.1 Billion In Economic Impact

Newly released results from The Tauri Group, an independent, analytic consulting firm based in Alexandria, Virginia, reveal that the new NASA Commercial Crew and Cargo Program funding in the President'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 study was commissioned by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation for an objective estimate of jobs resulting from NASA's proposed spending of $5.8 billion on Commercial Crew and an additional $312 million on Commercial Cargo from FY2011 to FY2015. 

"The Tauri Group's analysis indicates a peak of 14,200 direct jobs in FY2012 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," said Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
 
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.

FMI: www.taurigroup.com