Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.
At least 2,145 high-level NASA employees are set to leave as the agency faces pressure from the Trump administration to reduce its staff, Politico reported on 9 July. More than half of these employees, all of whom hold GS-13 to GS-15 positions, work within core NASA mission sets including science and human spaceflight. Staff were offered early retirement, buyouts, and deferred resignations.
The departures are spread across NASA’s 10 regional centers, with the largest loss of staff (607) concentrated at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
The president’s budget request for NASA calls for an overall staff reduction of more than 5,000. One departing staffer told Politico that their decision to leave was out of fear for NASA’s uncertain future.
“Things just sound like it’s going to get worse,” they said.
The Trump administration has made loud noises about sending humans back to the Moon and then to Mars. These priorities were made clear in its budget request to NASA, which cut nearly 50% of the budget for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate while boosting funding for its human spaceflight program (this is within a 25% reduction in NASA’s overall budget). The proposed budget would shut down 41 space missions. The budget reconciliation bill that was signed on 4 July also included about $10 billion for NASA’s human spaceflight efforts.
Despite the boost in funding, it’s hard to see how the Moon-to-Mars goals are achievable in a reasonable timeframe with the massive drain of experience these departures represent.
“You’re losing the managerial and core technical expertise of the agency,” said Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society. “What’s the strategy and what do we hope to achieve here?”
—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.bsky.social), Staff Writer
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