Approximately 2,145 high-level NASA employees are being laid off as part of ongoing government spending cuts. These layoffs affect specialized and managerial roles with salaries starting at six figures. Over 67 percent of these employees are involved in essential mission areas such as human space flight and science. Additionally, the White House has proposed a 2026 budget that would drastically reduce NASA's funding by a quarter. Key NASA centers like Goddard and Kennedy will be heavily impacted, pushing the scientific community and taxpayers to express outrage over the cuts.
"This is catastrophic for space science and astrophysics," decried theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. "Globally catastrophic, not just for Americans."
Astrophysicist Robert Rutledge noted that 607 staffers are departing from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, "where much of NASA astrophysics is housed."
"With cuts like these... the United States effectively abandons its decades-old global leadership position in astrophysics," Rutledge wrote on social media.
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