Hundreds of current, former NASA workers oppose Trump administration cuts

UPI

2 days ago

July 21 (UPI) -- Several hundred current and former NASA employees, including at least four retired astronauts, backed a letter that opposes the Trump administration's significant cuts to the federal space agency.
The letter, which included 131 signatures and 156 unnamed ones out of "fear of retaliation," is titled "The Voyager Declaration." It is named after the two NASA spacecraft exploring space when they launched in 1977 from Florida.
The retired astronauts who signed the letter include Cady Coleman, Steve Swanson, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger and John Herrington.
Scientists outside NASA, including 20 Nobel Prize winners, also have given their support for the agency that was found in 1958 before the first unmanned satellite launched.
The letter was addressed to Sean Duffy, who was named interim NASA administrator on Juy 10 and continues to serve as Transportation Secretary.
He replaced acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro, a long-time agency employee.
"In light of your recent appointment as Interim NASA Administrator, we bring to your attention recent policies that have or threaten to waste public resources, compromise human safety, weaken national security, and undermine the core NASA mission," the letter reads.
They urged Duffy to oppose a 24% budget reduction and 31% workforce cuts as proposed by the Trump administration.
Out of the 17,000-plus NASA employees, 2,600 have lost their jobs, according to Politicio. And at least $117 million in NASA grants already have been canceled.
Congress sets U.S. spending.
Workers at other federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency, have penned similar letters opposing cutbacks.
"The consequences for the agency and the country alike are dire," the letter says.
The signers of the letter cited wasteful efforts affecting the workforce.
"Major programmatic shifts at NASA must be implemented strategically so that risks are managed carefully," the letter reads. "Instead, the last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA's workforce.
"We are compelled to speak up when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety, scientific advancement, and efficient use of public resources. These cuts are arbitrary and have been enacted in defiance of congressional appropriations law."
The letter lays out several things on which the letter writers say, "we dissent":
Changes to NASA's Technical Authority
Closing of missions appropriated by Congress
"Indiscriminate" cuts to NASA science and aeronautics research
"Non-strategic staffing reductions"
Canceling of NASA participation in international missions
Termination of contracts and grants "unrelated to performance"
Elimination of programs for supporting NASA's workforce
The Technical Authority was established in wake of the 2003 Columbia shuttler disaster that killed seven astronauts. It allows workers in all levels of the agency to voice concern outside a usual chain of command.
The letter was dedicated to the Columbia astronauts, as well as Gus Grissom, Ed White And Roger Chaffee, who died aboard Apollo 1 at the launch pad in 1967, and seven killed in the 1987 Challenger explosion.
"Their legacies underpin every conversation about our shared commitment to safety and dissenting opinions at NASA," the letter reads.
Monica Gorman, an operations research analyst at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told The New York Times: "We're afraid of retaliation."
She added: "I'm already at risk of losing my job, and I'd rather speak out and try to save something at NASA, rather than just hide under my desk until I get laid off. But I am scared."
Ella Kaplan, who also works at Goddard, as a contractor for website administratipon, signed the letter.
Kaplan told Nature.com she doesn't expect Duffy to read the entire letter but the declaration is "about getting our dissent out to the public and saying, 'Hey -- this is what's happened at NASA, and this is not OK.'"
NASA spokesman Bethany Steven told Nature.com that NASA is not interested in sustaining "lower-priority missions."
"We must revisit what's working and what's not so that we can inspire the American people again and win the space race," she said.
Makenzie Lystrup, Goddard's direct since 2023, resigned, effective Aug. 1, after the letter was released, according to an internal email obtained by CNN.
NASA, with the retirement of the shuttle in 2011, mainly relies on SpaceX, a private company, to send astronauts to the International Space Station.
NASA is leading the Artemis program to send humans to the moon again in a few years. The agency is working with SpaceX, Blue Origin and Intuitive Machines as well as foreign public agencies.