Shamini 
(C):Twitter
According to internal documents leaked to Politico, the Trump administration is planning to terminate over 2,145 senior level NASA employees. As part of a bigger plan to shrink the federal workforce, the severance will apply to employees in the managerial and technical occupations, specifically GS-13 to GS-15. The employees are given the options of early retirement, buyout or deferred resignation.
Core Mission Areas Hit the Hardest
The layoffs are anticipated to negatively impact NASA’s fundamental mission capabilities. Out of the 2,145 targeted workforce, 1,818 are employed in mission essential areas such as science and human spaceflight. The others are performing mission critical activities related to information technology, finance and administration. The staff planned for layoff represent decades of institutional knowledge and technical capability.
The cut comes at the same time as a proposed 25% cut to NASA’s FY26 budget, which may also see the agency lose nearly 5000 total staff. If approved by Congress, it would mark NASA’s smallest operational budget since the 1960s. The infrastructure of the proposed budget also cuts dozens of science programs which will only add to NASA’s uncertain future.
Fallout and Leadership Void
Since President Trump began his new term in office, the United States space industry has been in disarray. A group of seven former directors of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate have publicly denounced the proposed budget and warned that it will harm the position of leadership in space which will allow countries like China to overtake the U.S. in scientific progress.
NASA is also still without a confirmed administrator after Trump withdrew Jared Isaacman’s nomination purportedly to block Elon Musk. In the meantime, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been appointed acting NASA administrator.
This unprecedented reorganization is leaving the future of U.S. space exploration up in the air.
