"The challenge of space is not in building the space systems, it is in building the space team," Kranz told CBS News in an email exchange. "With the termination of shuttle operations the NASA and contractor work force that took a decade to build and mature is being destroyed.

Several NASA commentators are saying there are serious problems here because we're going to loose the community of people that surround human space flight and the collective expertise that they represent. They are laying everyone off.

Launch Director Mike Leinbach:

"Throughout the history of the manned spaceflight program, we've always had another program to transition into -- from Mercury to Gemini to Apollo, Apollo Soyuz Test Program to Skylab, and then to shuttle -- we always had something to transition into. And we had that (with Constellation) and it got canceled and now we don't have anything, and I'm embarrassed that we don't."

They have no idea when or where these people will be needed to do this kind of work again.

"the difference between a dream and a goal is a schedule"

Spaceflight Now | STS-135 Shuttle Report | U.S. must rely upon the Russians for access to space