<font color="yellow">"...so much of the reduction can be achieved simply by natural attrition. "</font><br /><br />Granted -- I should have specified in my reply that the <i>number of job positions</i> must be reduced. I see too many articles about the retirement of the shuttle, where politicians are angling to try to ensure jobs aren't lost (to a politician, it's the job <b>position</b> that's important, not the necessarily the person filling it). This irks me because it <b>should</b> be taken as a given that a prime goal of the CEV is to require as few support personnel as possible. I have no animosity towards the people in these positions, but the less there are of them, the more money remaining to spend on hardware and missions... which is the whole point.<br /><br />I might add that juggling attrition and the shuttle retirement is going to be dicey. You can't have <b>too</b> many leave before the orbiters are retired, then you need a really big chunk to go all at once. Attrition is normally a steady process and not easily subject to precise timing. If people retire, but the slot is still require (for now), someone must be hired to fill it... only to be let go if the slot goes away later.