Slimming down and becoming efficient is good. However...

NASA can easily outsource everything to India like we do for practically everything else just we can save money. That is the American Way.


More than 20% of NASA's workforce requests to leave agency
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-workforce-employees-leave-agency/

Quote:

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Nearly 4,000 employees, or more than 20% of NASA's workforce, have applied to leave the agency, NASA confirmed to CBS News Friday.
About 3,870 employees have applied to depart NASA over two rounds through the Trump administration's deferred resignation program, NASA disclosed.
The deadline for applications to the program is midnight Friday.
With those deferred resignations, NASA's civil servant workforce would shrink from about 18,000 to 14,000 personnel. This figure also includes about 500 employees who were lost through normal attrition, the agency said.
"Safety remains a top priority for our agency as we balance the need to become a more streamlined and more efficient organization and work to ensure we remain fully capable of pursuing a Golden Era of exploration and innovation, including to the Moon and Mars," NASA spokesperson Cheryl Warner said in a statement.

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Quote:

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According to NASA, about 870 employees applied to leave during the first round of the Deferred Resignation Program, and about 3,000 employees during the second round.
The deferred resignation program was a buyout program introduced across the federal government by the White House's Department of Government Efficiency at the onset of the Trump administration in an effort to slash costs and reduce the size of the federal workforce.
A White House budget proposal issued in May would see NASA's funding cut by about 25% for fiscal year 2026, from about $24 billion to $18 billion.
NASA has also been roiled by a leadership crisis in recent months. In December, President Trump nominated billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman, a friend of former DOGE head Elon Musk, to serve as NASA's next administrator. Musk's SpaceX has several NASA contracts.

However, in late May, Mr. Trump pulled Isaacman's nomination just ahead of the Senate confirmation vote, which was followed days later by a public fallout between Mr. Trump and Musk.
Earlier this month, the president announced that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy would temporarily lead the agency.
Miles Doran contributed to this report.

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SpaceX does space better, anyway.

You seem upset. "Applied to Leave" means with a fat paycheck monthly for eternity. The jobs are going to independent contractors who are doing it faster and better and cheaper, with American talent. They can get those jobs unless they are used to being deadwood.

Yeah, only 14k employees….wonder how many SpaceX has??

KerrAg76 said:

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Yeah, only 14k employees….wonder how many SpaceX has??

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A little over 13k from a brief Googletron check.

Bye. SpaceX can handle it.

Also, how many of those leaving are working on DEI nonsense and understanding Islam? Obama changed the mission of NASA. Did that ever get undone?

I voted for this. Thanks for sharing OP.

will they be missed.

what has NASA done lately. haven't gone back to the moon in 50 years, have had multiple space shuttle blow up, can't bring astronauts home from space station.

They are clamoring for that severance so they can apply for private space jobs. Also I can see where MAF folks in Slidell would want to leave. That place is a **** hole. I would be pissed if I worked there while federal reserve is spending billions on their renovations.

Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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will they be missed.

what has NASA done lately. haven't gone back to the moon in 50 years, have had multiple space shuttle blow up, can't bring astronauts home from space station.

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I still point to landing on the moon as the last impressive accomplishment of our government. Seriously, name something the government did over the last 55 years that was more impressive than landing on the moon and planting our flag.

Also, when I say "impressive" I mean in a positive way. They've certainly done MANY negative things that were impressive over that time....sadly.

BigRobSA said:

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KerrAg76 said:

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Yeah, only 14k employees….wonder how many SpaceX has??

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A little over 13k from a brief Googletron check.

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And per the Google:

Yes, SpaceX employs individuals on H-1B visas. SpaceX utilizes the H-1B visa program to hire foreign-born specialists in various technical roles, including engineering, IT, and computer science. The company has sponsored H-1B visas for numerous employees and is actively involved in the program, according to H1B Grader and other immigration resources.

Glad you qualified that measure of impressive to be positive only.

Because, I was going to start with a 20 year war in Afghanistan that wound up basically back where it started. That was impressive.

In the past 50 years, the most impressive positive thing might be airline deregulation. We'd never have Spirit Airlines fights if it wasn't for deregulation.

I personally know at least 4 of them.

I will say that NASA has lost a good amount of institutional knowledge due to this.

FWIW, this is all in the unmanned aircraft/advanced air mobility/urban air mobility field.

I was just at an AIAA conference. From what I heard, only 50 people from all of the NASA offices were there...usually it's about 10 times more. There were a LOT of papers that were withdrawn - I assume because their authors weren't authorized to travel.

It will be interesting to see how this bears out for the industry in the coming years.

If this is from the initial downsizing directive of Trump, then they were probably unnecessary positions.

I see no reason to replace them or outsource

Ciboag96 said:

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You seem upset. "Applied to Leave" means with a fat paycheck monthly for eternity. The jobs are going to independent contractors who are doing it faster and better and cheaper, with American talent. They can get those jobs unless they are used to being deadwood.

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No it doesn't. That's "retirement", and 20% of their workforce was certainly not eligible for that. These folks are getting a small buyout payment to quit.

Outreach programs hardest hit.

Permission granted.

SpaceX has redesigned the orbital buffer.

Ciboag96 said:

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You seem upset. "Applied to Leave" means with a fat paycheck monthly for eternity. The jobs are going to independent contractors who are doing it faster and better and cheaper, with American talent. They can get those jobs unless they are used to being deadwood.

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What will actually happen is they will give contracts to American companies for show. Those American companies will outsource to WITCH companies in India. Gullible Americans appeased. Everyone makes money. Rocket falls out of the sky in 10 years and none the wiser.

PS: WITCH = Wipro, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Cognizant, and HCLTech. All Indian outsourcing companies.

No Spin Ag said:

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BigRobSA said:

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KerrAg76 said:

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Yeah, only 14k employees….wonder how many SpaceX has??

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A little over 13k from a brief Googletron check.

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And per the Google:

Yes, SpaceX employs individuals on H-1B visas. SpaceX utilizes the H-1B visa program to hire foreign-born specialists in various technical roles, including engineering, IT, and computer science. The company has sponsored H-1B visas for numerous employees and is actively involved in the program, according to H1B Grader and other immigration resources.

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Guess who is getting information about space activities.
No wonder Musk went nuts. He is in on the scam. Good on Trump to throw this evil man out.

Logos Stick said:

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Bye. SpaceX can handle it.

Also, how many of those leaving are working on DEI nonsense and understanding Islam? Obama changed the mission of NASA. Did that ever get undone?

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The mind boggles at the ignorance shown daily.

Like me I'm sure a lot of us on here have endured. Been thru 3 different RIFs and it's no fun abut you endure and move on. Never received anything at all 3 companies but a typical severance payment. I truly wish them well.

Not questioning your report but I think a lot of these are in the 'earth science' related areas, where it's all climate change, etc. Some of those projects you referenced such as urban air transport etc. are also electric/alternate-green powered stuff which is a complete waste of money/time.

Congress is unfortunately insisting we keep marching forward with SLS thru launch 5 I think, which is going to cost something like $3 billion each for the next few launches when it's all said and done, thru 2029. That program is an absolute joke and should offend Americans. NASA's own folks under Biden even admitted it was a ludicrously unaffordable scheme.

If Trump was allowed to actually kill that and spend the money on exploration elsewhere we might get some good science out of it.

They are leaving for more stability. Sounds crazy. But there is more stability in quitting with an additional paycheck than going to work each day not knowing if your job will be there or not the following day, week or month. I have friends that were damned good at what they did but the instability of political decisions made it untenable from a career perspective.

oldag941 said:

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They are leaving for more stability. Sounds crazy. But there is more stability in quitting with an additional paycheck than going to work each day not knowing if your job will be there or not the following day, week or month. I have friends that were damned good at what they did but the instability of political decisions made it untenable from a career perspective.

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Im not debating that. I'm simply clarifying that the NASA people will not be receiving some magic government check the rest of their lives. That ship sailed for the retirement eligible folks a few months ago, and it was a sweet deal Ive been told.

B-1 83 said:

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oldag941 said:

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They are leaving for more stability. Sounds crazy. But there is more stability in quitting with an additional paycheck than going to work each day not knowing if your job will be there or not the following day, week or month. I have friends that were damned good at what they did but the instability of political decisions made it untenable from a career perspective.

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Im not debating that. I'm simply clarifying that the NASA people will not be receiving some magic government check the rest of their lives. That ship sailed for the retirement eligible folks a few months ago, and it was a sweet deal Ive been told.

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Of course not. Magic isn't real. DUH!

Prosperdick said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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will they be missed.

what has NASA done lately. haven't gone back to the moon in 50 years, have had multiple space shuttle blow up, can't bring astronauts home from space station.

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I still point to landing on the moon as the last impressive accomplishment of our government. Seriously, name something the government did over the last 55 years that was more impressive than landing on the moon and planting our flag.

Also, when I say "impressive" I mean in a positive way. They've certainly done MANY negative things that were impressive over that time....sadly.

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The International Space Station is probably the most ambitious engineering project ever conceived. It just never captured the public's imagination.

ETFan said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Bye. SpaceX can handle it.

Also, how many of those leaving are working on DEI nonsense and understanding Islam? Obama changed the mission of NASA. Did that ever get undone?

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The mind boggles at the ignorance shown daily.

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Pot meet kettle

lb3 said:

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Prosperdick said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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will they be missed.

what has NASA done lately. haven't gone back to the moon in 50 years, have had multiple space shuttle blow up, can't bring astronauts home from space station.

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I still point to landing on the moon as the last impressive accomplishment of our government. Seriously, name something the government did over the last 55 years that was more impressive than landing on the moon and planting our flag.

Also, when I say "impressive" I mean in a positive way. They've certainly done MANY negative things that were impressive over that time....sadly.

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The International Space Station is probably the most ambitious engineering project ever conceived. It just never captured the public's imagination.

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I was also thinking about this very thing...but didn't mention it because of the emboldened. Not a NASA thing, alone. Not to mention the previous space stations like Mir, Salyut, SpaceLab etc.

Ciboag96 said:

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You seem upset. "Applied to Leave" means with a fat paycheck monthly for eternity. The jobs are going to independent contractors who are doing it faster and better and cheaper, with American talent. They can get those jobs unless they are used to being deadwood.

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You can't just replace the guys I know that have left with "independent contractors".

These guys were the Chief Technologists of different divisions or something similar.

They are the SMEs of the entire industry and have been for decades.

nortex97 said:

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Not questioning your report but I think a lot of these are in the 'earth science' related areas, where it's all climate change, etc. Some of those projects you referenced such as urban air transport etc. are also electric/alternate-green powered stuff which is a complete waste of money/time.

Congress is unfortunately insisting we keep marching forward with SLS thru launch 5 I think, which is going to cost something like $3 billion each for the next few launches when it's all said and done, thru 2029. That program is an absolute joke and should offend Americans. NASA's own folks under Biden even admitted it was a ludicrously unaffordable scheme.

If Trump was allowed to actually kill that and spend the money on exploration elsewhere we might get some good science out of it.

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I'm only speaking of the ones I personally know...and they weren't involved in the climate change stuff.

They WERE involved in urban air mobility (UAM) (aka package delivery) and UTM (UAM Traffic Management). Basically, helping to design the CONOPS and rules/regulations that will get UAS/UAM into the NAS.

oldag941 said:

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They are leaving for more stability. Sounds crazy. But there is more stability in quitting with an additional paycheck than going to work each day not knowing if your job will be there or not the following day, week or month. I have friends that were damned good at what they did but the instability of political decisions made it untenable from a career perspective.

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All the ones I know that are leaving are just taking the buyout (not being pushed out). They don't want to worry about instability in their positions in the near future. But, all of them either have or will take jobs in the private sector as high ranking SMEs so they're not going to be hurting.

Only problem is that the industry gets a lot of its direction from NASA and the FAA, and if too many of those guys leave, it will end up slowing down the adoption of UAS/UAM/AAM...

ETFan said:

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Logos Stick said:

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Bye. SpaceX can handle it.

Also, how many of those leaving are working on DEI nonsense and understanding Islam? Obama changed the mission of NASA. Did that ever get undone?

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The mind boggles at the ignorance shown daily.

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We get a lot of boggled CMs around here lately. One might say they are easily boggled.

Prosperdick said:

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Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

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will they be missed.

what has NASA done lately. haven't gone back to the moon in 50 years, have had multiple space shuttle blow up, can't bring astronauts home from space station.

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I still point to landing on the moon as the last impressive accomplishment of our government. Seriously, name something the government did over the last 55 years that was more impressive than landing on the moon and planting our flag.

Also, when I say "impressive" I mean in a positive way. They've certainly done MANY negative things that were impressive over that time....sadly.

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The Internet can trace some of its roots back to DoD funded research

Stealth Technology


Just a couple of marvels I give out government at least partial credit for. However, I think the more important issue here is that the taxpayer has not gotten the ROI from the MASSIVE amount of money the government wasted in some of their "great" ideas. In general, the government does things slower, worse and at a higher rate than the private sector. Until someone figures out how to fix that issue we're going to continue down a path of financial ruin.