Politico reported on Wednesday that some 2,145 senior-level officials at the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are poised to leave as part of a staff reduction effort. The report also states that the news outlet has checked the official documents. According to the report, the majority of employees leaving are in senior-level government posts ranging from GS-13 to GS-15, and the agency has given early retirement, buyouts, and deferred resignations. "NASA remains committed to our mission as we work within a more prioritised budget," the agency's spokesperson, Bethany Stevens, told Reuters by email.
The U.S. space industry and NASA's 18,000 employees have been the target of impending layoffs and budget cuts under President Donald Trump's administration in recent months, which would eliminate dozens of science programs. Additionally, the agency still lacks a confirmed administrator.Jared Isaacman, a rich private astronaut and Musk's friend, was Trump's nominee for NASA administrator. Last month, the White House abruptly pulled him from consideration, depriving Musk of his choice to head the space agency. This seemed to be an early casualty of Musk's disagreement with the president.
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In a joint letter to Congress last week, seven former leaders of NASA's Science Mission Directorate denounced the White House's proposed 47% reduction in NASA science spending in its 2026 budget proposal. The former officials asked the House appropriations committee in the letter "to reject the unprecedented cuts to space science concocted by the White House's Budget Director, Russ Vought, and preserve US leadership in space exploration." In the letter, it was written, "The economics of these proposed cuts ignore a fundamental truth: investments in NASA science have been and are a powerful driver of the U.S. economy and technological leadership."
The former officials also stated, “In our former roles leading NASA’s space science enterprise, we consistently saw skilled teams innovate in the face of seemingly impossible goals, including landing a car-sized rover on Mars with pinpoint precision, build a massive telescope that can unfold in the vacuum of space to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos, design and operate a spacecraft hardy enough to survive temperatures of many thousands of degrees at the Sun, inspiring young and old alike worldwide by the stunning images from the Hubble Space Telescope, and pioneering the use of small satellites for science.”