End of an Era With the last space shuttle mission scheduled for launch July 8, about 3,200 NASA contractor personnel will lose their jobs by mid-August. The shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to land for the final time on July 20, and the shuttle program ends “30 days after wheels stop,” program manager John Shannon said at a briefing in Houston, according to MSNBC’s Cosmic Log blog. Shannon said about 1,000 contractors will be retained to help prepare the four orbiters for their final resting places in museums. Many contractors and civil servants have already moved on. One reporter noted that the parking lots at the Johnson Space Center seemed emptier. Shannon said other tech companies are hiring many shuttle veterans. He recalled seeing former shuttle employees get new jobs, and then “come back and grab six of their friends.” At its height in 1992, the shuttle program employed about 30,000 contractors.