At least 2,145 senior NASA officials are set to resign amid pressure to cut staff, a move that could strip the agency of decades of experience, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.
The cuts are for employees in the top civil service positions, GS-13 through GS-15, typically reserved for those with specialized skills or managerial responsibilities. According to the documents, at least 875 employees at the highest GS-15 level (salaries at this level start at a base of $125,000 per year) will be laid off.
In total, 2,694 civilian employees agreed to leave the agency under a series of voluntary redundancy offers from NASA. NASA offered employees early retirement, contract buyouts and deferred severance packages.
Many of those being laid off are core NASA mission support staff, according to documents obtained by POLITICO. 1,818 employees work on science missions or support human spaceflight. The rest are in support roles in areas such as IT, facilities management or finance.
"You’re losing the managerial and core technical expertise of the agency. What’s the strategy and what do we hope to achieve here?" said Casey Dreier, head of space policy at the Planetary Society.
The layoffs come as the White House proposes a 25 percent cut in NASA funding and more than 5,000 staff cuts for 2026. If Congress approves the cuts, the agency would be forced to operate with its smallest budget and staff since the early 1960s.
The 2,694 civil servants who resigned are only half of the total number of cuts the White House wants to see, opening the door to forced layoffs if more employees don't participate in a deferred termination program that runs until July 25, 2025.