Europe Asia News

According to documents obtained by Politico, most of the departing employees hold high-level federal government positions, which would deprive the agency of decades of experience as part of efforts to downsize the federal government through early retirements, buyouts, and deferred resignations.

The documents show that 1,818 of the employees are currently working in core areas such as science or human spaceflight, while others are in mission support roles such as information technology or IT.

Since Trump returned to office in January, the U.S. space industry and NASA’s 18,000-person workforce have been thrown into turmoil due to planning, layoffs, and proposed budget cuts for the 2026 fiscal year that would eliminate dozens of science programs.

Last week, seven former heads of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate signed a joint letter to Congress condemning the White House’s 2026 budget proposal to cut NASA’s scientific activities by 47 percent. In the letter, the former officials urged the House Appropriations Committee to “preserve U.S. leadership in space exploration and reject the unprecedented cuts to space science proposed by White House Budget Director Russ Vought.”