audio, stills, text and or video: Go to http://www.zReportage.com to see more - Two years after NASA ended the three-decade-long U.S. space shuttle program, thousands of engineers and other staff who worked at the Kennedy Space Center are still struggling to find jobs to replace the careers that flourished when shuttles took off from Florida's 'Space Coast.' When the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, 8,000 people lost their jobs, and the town born from the space-race began to fall into decline.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Aug. 28, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - FRANCINE MYERS, worked at Kennedy Space Center for 30 years as a logistics specialist. She lost her job right after the last shuttle launch in July 2011 and has been unemployed ever since. Pictures and words of encouragement decorate the desk at her home and she has been studying a course on bereavement at her local community college.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Nov. 2, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - The Space Shuttle Atlantis travels a 10-mile road on the crawler transporter past the Vehicle Assembly Building, at Kennedy Space Center to its final resting place at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Center.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Aug. 30, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - TIM SEYMOUR wears a gold and diamond space shuttle ring. He worked on the close out crew of the Space Shuttle program for 31 years. 'You go to work with attitude. If it was easy, then anyone could do it,' he said.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Nov. 1, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - BILL BLUMER, 48, worked at Kennedy Space Center for 10 years. 'What we did out there was a privilege,' he said. 'What we did out there wasn't done anywhere else.' Still unemployed after a year and a half, he works part time at Lowe's, just to get out of the house. During a break from applying for jobs, he pets his dogs in the backyard of his Titusville home.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Oct. 30, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - Brevard County Sheriff's Deputy ARNOLD SMITH peeks in the window of the home where he was attempting to serve a restraining order. He has seen crime go up and an increase in evictions and suicides since the demise of the Space Shuttle program. His department has served over 2600 evictions since 2011. 'Ten years down the road, it is going to be a desert down here,' he said.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Nov. 2, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - The Space Shuttle Atlantis travels a 10 mile road past the Vehicle Assembly Building, at Kennedy Space Center to its final resting place at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Center. Crawler Transporter crew members watch the fireworks display when Atlantis reached its final resting place.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Aug. 30, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - TIM SEYMOUR worked on the Closeout Crew of the Space Shuttle program for 31 years. Seymour was the last person to see the astronauts after he strapped them into the orbiter, gave them the thumbs up and shut the door before they were blasted off into space. â'Every time I did it, the weirdest feeling came over me because I knew I was the last one to touch it,' he said.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Nov. 2, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - With a total of 53 years between them working on the crawler transporter at Kennedy Space Center, BOBBY KNOST, JIM GUARINO and DAN DRAKE, finish the final move of the Space Shuttle Atlantis to its final resting place at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center. 'Lets get this over with,' Bobby Knost said, 'Lets put her to bed.'
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Nov. 1, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - The Miracle City Mall, deserted of customers and stores saw better times when Titusville was a boomtown born of the space race.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Aug. 26, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - SHIRLIN CAMPBELL prays during Sunday morning worship at St James AME Church. Campbell was laid off from her custodian job at Kennedy Space Center and is afraid she will be evicted from her home. She has had no luck finding another job at the same pay scale at her former job.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Aug. 28, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - MIKE MOON, 55, has lived in Titusville his whole life and worked at KSC as a Quality Inspector for the Space Shuttle program, before he was laid off in September 2012. '“It is hard to take, not because of the job but it's the pride everyone put into it. It is hard to take to see the Russians launching our astronauts into space instead of us. We are not the leader in space anymore and it makes me sick,' he said bitterly. 'I don't want to work on aircraft, I want to work on spacecraft. He drinks a beer at 'Dogs R Us,' a bar frequented by current and former KSC employees.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Aug. 28, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - A heavy storm showers the nearly empty A. Max Brewer Bridge that was built to accommodate the thousands of visitors who traveled to the Space Coast to view Space Shuttle launches. The 4 million dollar bridge was completed just in time for the last Space Shuttle launch.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Aug. 23, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - ROGER PICIOR, 44, and his son JUSTIN PICIOR, 17, left, fish on the Indian River at Merritt Island National Refuge across from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center where Roger's father worked for 30 years. As for the shuttle launches, Roger said 'I've seen too many launches, I don't even look up into the sky anymore.'
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Aug. 30, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - TIM SEYMOUR worked on the close out crew of the Space Shuttle program for 31 years. His treasured white jumpsuit that he wore at work hangs in the laundry room of his father's house.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Aug. 30, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - With the Space Shuttle Endeavor parked behind them in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), tour guide MARY GLENN, of Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center, lectures visitors who have paid 9 dollars each to tour the VAB, the largest hangar in the world.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Aug. 30, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - A tour guide waits, under his umbrella, for visitors at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Oct. 31, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - JAMES PEEK, 48, lost his job as a Senior Aerospace Inspector at Kennedy Space Center in October of 2010. Without health insurance, Peek has applied for fifty jobs, with no luck so he tries to survive on odd jobs. He watches the weather channel at his Titusville home.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA
Aug. 29, 2012 - Titusville, Florida, U.S - A model of an astronaut perches above the ticket booths at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center where visitors pay up to $9 dollars each to take tours of old launch pads and the Vehicle Assembly Building.
© Mary F. Calvert/zReportage/ZUMA