On 7 February, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., laid off 530 workers—round 8% of their greater than 6,000-person workforce—together with 40 contractors.
February’s layoffs have been the most recent in a sequence of cutbacks and slowdowns at NASA facilities. JPL had already laid off 100 contractors in January, NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Middle laid off contractors late final 12 months, and work on a number of tasks had slowed or frozen solely. The sequence was precipitated by the dearth of a federal price range for fiscal 12 months (FY) 2024 for a number of months after the prior 12 months’s appropriations ran out.
Digital Layoffs
On Tuesday, 6 February, JPL staff obtained a memo from the middle’s director Laurie Leshin.
“Whereas we nonetheless do not need an FY24 appropriation or the ultimate phrase from Congress on our Mars Pattern Return (MSR) price range allocation, we are actually ready the place we should take additional vital motion to cut back our spending, which is able to lead to layoffs of JPL staff and a further launch of contractors,” Leshin wrote. The layoffs would occur the next day.
Everybody, barring just a few lab-essential personnel, was directed to work at home on 7 February and attend a digital assembly with their division supervisors explaining the method. Then workers and contractors awaited particular person emails saying whether or not or not they nonetheless had jobs.
Knowledge obtained from California’s Employment Growth Division present that almost all of February’s workers layoffs (71%) affected engineering-related positions. Amongst these, systems engineers have been notably laborious hit, with 117 of 822 engineers shedding their jobs, 14% of the workforce, whereas mechatronics engineers misplaced the very best fraction (25%) of their workforce (32 of 115).
Leshin instructed Area Information in April that although vital, the cuts didn’t influence JPL’s core capabilities. “We labored very laborious despite having to make the deep cuts and to ensure these capabilities have been intact.”
A number of former JPL staff declined to remark for this story.
Capping NASA’s Finances
On 9 March, Congress handed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, which offered a price range for NASA and several other different federal businesses for FY24. NASA’s 2024 price range is $24.875 billion—2%, or $509 million, decrease than in 2023.
“You possibly can’t pursue this system that NASA is directed to do whereas giving it much less cash.”
“You possibly can’t pursue this system that NASA is directed to do whereas giving it much less cash,” stated Casey Dreier, chief of area coverage on the Planetary Society in Pasadena.
“It’s good to have a price range, sure,” Dreier stated. Nonetheless, when factoring in current inflation, “the two% minimize really compounds to a lack of a few billion {dollars} in shopping for energy since NASA’s peak in 2020.”
“In somewhat company that’s doing an terrible lot, it makes a giant distinction,” NASA administrator Invoice Nelson stated in regards to the minimize in a name with reporters on 11 March. Nelson blamed the price range constraints on caps placed on nondiscretionary protection funding in FY24 and FY25. The caps have been demanded by “a small handful of individuals within the Home of Representatives” as a part of a deal to lift the debt ceiling, Nelson stated.
Most directorates and divisions obtained comparatively flat funding over FY23 ranges. Funding for the Artemis program, Astrophysics Division, and the Close to-Earth Object Surveyor within the Planetary Science Division grew barely, and the VERITAS Venus orbiter mission is again on the books.
The Science Mission Directorate took the largest hit, receiving $461 million lower than it did in FY23. All of that minimize got here from the Planetary Science Division, particularly from MSR.
“Mars Pattern Return principally grew to become the financial institution that prevented cuts from each different NASA science challenge,” Dreier stated. “That’s not a sustainable technique.”
Mars Pattern Return on Ice
MSR was allotted at the least $300 million, and as much as $949 million, in FY24. The decrease quantity was a compromise between the Senate’s invoice, which initially canceled the mission solely, and the Home’s invoice, which appropriated the upper quantity. The appropriation permits NASA to spend as much as the upper quantity if cash is freed up elsewhere inside its planetary science price range.
Leshin’s February memo defined that NASA had directed JPL to plan for receiving solely $300 million for MSR. Staffing cuts have been made in anticipation of that, and finally, MSR was assured solely $300 million.
For the previous a number of years, MSR has been a budgetary flash level. The mission companions with the European Area Company to gather and return to Earth samples of Mars’s soil gathered by the Perseverance rover. Price overruns, delays, and mismanagement introduced MSR below the scrutiny of two unbiased evaluate boards (IRBs), which suggested that the mission as is was not possible in scope, design, or price range.
In response to the second IRB, NASA interviewed dozens of subject material specialists and evaluated 20 mission design proposals. The company hasn’t finalized the mission design or structure however concluded {that a} redesigned MSR would probably price $8–$11 billion and would return samples to Earth in 2040. The company introduced on 15 April that it’s soliciting modern and aggressive mission structure proposals to cut back the price and shorten the timeline.
“The underside line is, an $11 billion price range is just too costly, and a 2040 return date is just too far-off,” Nelson stated in a press convention on 15 April.
The IRB additionally really helpful that JPL retain its MSR campaign-level technical management function, however NASA determined to soak up lots of these obligations into the MSR Program Workplace at its Washington, D.C., headquarters. The purpose of centralizing MSR management on the D.C. workplace slightly than break up between D.C. and JPL is to enhance communication, coordination, and mission growth throughout NASA facilities that can construct, take a look at, and run the mission after launch.
NASA initially listed “TBD” as its requested MSR price range for FY25 however has since requested $200 million for MSR because it evaluates potential mission architectures.
In response to NASA, the plan permits for extra flexibility within the mission’s development, launch, and administration; solicits modern and aggressive mission structure proposals; improves communication between NASA and its exterior stakeholders; will increase accountability; and maintains a balanced science portfolio throughout the company.
A Bumpy Future
Different high-profile NASA missions have come below congressional fireplace previously and gone on to do nice issues. The oft-delayed and far-over-budget James Webb Area Telescope was almost canceled by Congress a number of instances earlier than it launched in 2020. It has since offered unprecedented views of our close by planetary neighbors and among the farthest corners of the universe and is poised to usher in a brand new paradigm of astrophysics. Many planetary scientists consider MSR has the identical revolutionary potential for planetary science.
Nonetheless, JPL has laid off lots of the specialists and engineers with the bespoke data wanted to construct advanced missions. These engineers might have already discovered jobs elsewhere or could also be cautious of returning.
Within the current political scenario, extra cuts could also be on the best way when FY24 ends in October. The company additionally faces uncertainty if a brand new administration takes workplace in January.
“NASA isn’t an company that is determined by or makes use of mass industrialization or economies of scale,” Dreier stated. “You lose cash, you lose individuals. All the pieces slows down otherwise you lose tasks.”
—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@AstroKimCartier), Employees Author
