NASA cuts endanger safety, employees warn in open letter to Trump admin
The big picture: The federal budget for fiscal year 2026 cuts NASA's science spending by 47%, though billions in funding were included in President Trump's " big, beautiful bill" and could be restored.
Driving the news: In a letter addressed to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who was recently named interim NASA administrator, employees from every NASA center and mission directorate raised concerns over funding cuts and said they were being pressured to implement harmful measures.
" The last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA's workforce," the letter said.
Recent policies "have or threaten to waste public resources, compromise human safety, weaken national security, and undermine the core NASA mission," they wrote.
The letter, which is dedicated to astronauts who died in past spaceflight accidents, said that "the culture of organizational silence promoted at NASA over the last six months already represents a dangerous turn away from the lessons learned following the Columbia disaster."
The 2003 incident saw Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrate as it re-entered the atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board.
By the numbers: 131 people signed the letter publicly while another 156 did so anonymously.
The anonymous signatories "choose not to be identified due to the culture of fear of retaliation cultivated by this administration," the letter said.
Zoom out: Employees at the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency issued similar statements regarding the Trump administration's actions at their respective agencies.
In response, the EPA placed 139 employees on leave after they signed a "declaration of dissent" accusing the agency of "unraveling" health and environmental protections for political reasons.
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