Space workers can be oddly unsuited to anything else. I went to Titusville’s small airport to meet Robert Bial, who runs a plant that refurbishes aircraft landing gear. He is planning to hire up to 60 mechanics from the shuttle programme, but told me that a recent job fair at KSC was acutely depressing. An engineer with two PhDs had approached him, desperate for a job, but he had been so overqualified that Bial didn’t understand what he did. Finally, the engineer explained that he had invented a fibre now widely used in air-conditioning systems. “Here he is, a guy that our government is just going to let go,” said Bial. “How can we let these people leave?”