Posted on 07/26/2025 7:19:19 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Nearly 4,000 NASA employees have opted to leave the space agency through the Trump administration's deferred resignation program, NASA said on Saturday.
The cuts amount to an estimated 20% of NASA's workforce, and will reduce the agency from 18,000 to 14,000 employees, NASA spokesperson Cheryl Warner said in a statement shared with NPR. The total number includes the agency's loss of 500 other workers due to normal attrition, she said.
During a second round of the program, which closed at midnight Friday, 3,000 employees applied to leave the agency, Warner said, following the 870 employees that applied to leave during the first round.
The resignations follow the Trump administration's plan to reduce the federal workforce and implement cuts recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
NPR has reached out to the White House for comment.
It's unclear when the full reduction of the workforce will take effect, Warner said. NASA did not respond to NPR's questions about how the workforce cuts will affect the agency.
The administration has also proposed decreasing NASA's budget. A fiscal year 2026 budget request released in May would reduce funding for the agency by about 24% (from nearly $25 billion to nearly $19 billion.) But the House and Senate are discussing recommendations that would keep funding for the agency around the current budget.
Concerning funding beyond the next fiscal year, however, the agency recently got a boost — reversing earlier proposals to retire some NASA programs. Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act that he signed into law earlier this month, allocates nearly $10 billion in additional funding for NASA through 2032, including backing for Mars missions and plans to return to the moon.
The White House's proposed budget cuts and changes at the agency have faced criticism from scientists and space organizations, including The Planetary Society, a nonprofit led by Bill Nye, "The Science Guy."
"The Planetary Society believes that a great nation deserves a great space program, one that reflects our national ideals and serves the public interest," the organization said about the White House budget proposal in May. "This proposal doesn't merely fall short — it actively rejects that promise, undermining the rare opportunity NASA provides to build unity at home and collaboration abroad through American leadership."
On Monday, more than 300 current and former NASA employees signed and sent a letter known as the "Voyager Declaration" to interim NASA administrator Sean Duffy, criticizing "rapid and wasteful changes" at the agency that they say include cuts to programs and research. They also urged Duffy to not implement the proposed cuts and said "they are not in the best interest of NASA."
My father retired from NASA . Began his career as a civil engineer with the development of the MDSCC - the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex.
Perhaps we’ll see the old NASA drive we had in the 60’s.
So much for the Muslim outreach program.
EC
The organization needs to be repurposed. We could put them to, oh, I don’t know, space exploration or something? I hope that’s not crazy talk...
NASA needs to be abolished and started over from scratch, either that, or abolish it and turn its mission over to Space X ...
Get the government out of it,first come first claim
You’ll see a rush like you’ve never seen before...
The only reason government wants to be first is to be able to tell the rest of mankind how to use it.
Same for the moon.
Wonderful. They won’t be missed.
Good start. This agency has been overpriced and has underdelivered its entire existence.
What "work"?
Testing and replacing the vacuum tubes on their 1960s punchcard computers?
“valves:)
It appears building rockets is no longer a needed function of NASA.
...but we'll blame President Trump for anything that happens in space anyway.
-PJ
Deadwood self-clearing...
Good news...
Anybody of engineering or scientific consequence wouldn’t take the buyout...
Hillarious they get a quote from children’s clown Bill Nye.
SpaceX does a lot of NASA’s heavy lifting these days (literally) so a smaller agency only makes sense.
CC
Yup
“Anybody of engineering or scientific consequence wouldn’t take the buyout...”
Many are taking the buyout, especially in management, rather than waiting to see if they are cut when funding becomes tighter.
Well, bye.
I might take it if I were close to retirement.
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