The stupid people (person 1 and person 2) back from ISU keep having these conversations that make me all philosophical about my job.

You see, part of this philosophizing (ooh, Pres Bush is rubbing off on me), is the recent bout of rumors suggesting the Space Shuttle could be retired in less than 10 flights, rather than 28 flights like currently planned. (here and here are some print discussions of it). I can say I would necessarily fault that decision. There are a lot of good reasons for early retirement and I think its really up to policy makers to weigh the trade offs accordingly.

But that's not what I philosophizing about. I am wondering, what will I do? No secret, I wasn't ultra satisfied with my job over the last year or so. And then I made some big changes -- moved into doing some flight control work in particular, and hopefully soon will get to do some FDO work in specific (when, oh when, I'll get to start that is still a big mystery to me). I like working on flight programs. I.E., I like working on things that fly. I know, its a simplistic concept, but I wouldn't be an engineer working on anything else. Engineering is too boring to keep my interest if we weren't blasting holes in the sky.

So, here's the question. What would I do if my employer suddenly stopped all manned flight programs? So, then, what would I do?

Would I be happy spending the next 5 to 15 years working on exploration studies before we fly again? Needless to say, if I was just doing paper explorations studies, I might as well do them in a better located center than Houston.

Would I work for a different part of my agency, doing flight testing or robotic probes - so at least I can work with hardware?

Would I try to get a rotational position working with a foreign space agency?

Would I make a BIG switch? Join the Peace Corps? Apply to the Foreign Service? Go to school for Public Policy? Apply for a job with the International Red Cross? Work in a bookstore in New Zealand?

Would I make a lifestyle switch? Move to D.C. or Vermont or California or Canada or Australia and just find any sort of job I qualify for there?

Would I move to a more cutting edge part of the space program and work for (gasp) private industry at Scaled Composites or Blue Origin or "Virgin Galactic" etc that would give me real freedom to design entire parts of spaceships rather than being a cog in a machine?

Would I drop it all, as one flight instructor suggested that I would eventually do, and go into an enormous amount of debt to blast through all my flight ratings and go for a job at the airlines?

Would I move to another branch of the government - the NTSB and the State Department both seem like really interesting places to work? Even better, working on Congressional Staff or in the White House would be awesome.

This really reminds me of a certain list I hand wrote in close to 6 point font outlining all the post-graduation options that interested me a few years ago.