NASA’s course reversal on firing about 1,000 probationary employees in February was hailed as a victory for those opposing cuts to the space agency’s civil workforce, which in January comprised more than 18,000 personnel.
According to the latest update, however, NASA could be 20 percent smaller by January 2026.
The space agency on Friday shared its latest workforce figures, projecting that it will shrink to about 14,000 personnel by the start of next year. Per NASA spokesperson Cheryl Warner, about 3,870 departures are attributed to a pair of voluntary deferred resignation programs (DRPs) offered in January and June. Another 500 personnel will leave due to normal attrition.
“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,” Warner said in a statement shared with FLYING on Monday.
Warner said about 3,000 employees took the June DRP. Like other buyout offers extended to federal agencies by the White House, it grants several months of pay and benefits in exchange for leaving the agency.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, several high level NASA officials have resigned, including former administrator Bill Nelson, associate administrator Jim Free, and deputy administrator Pam Melroy. Mackenzie Lystrup, head of Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, joined them last week.
The space agency is without a permanent leader after the White House pulled the nomination of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman for administrator in May. Isaacman had garnered broad support from industry and Congress despite concerns about his plans for lunar exploration and ties to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) analyzed NASA’s spending in February.
NASA in Flux
Space industry stakeholders also have reservations about the White House’s fiscal year 2026 budget request. It calls to trim the NASA workforce by more than 5,000—a cut of nearly one-third that would represent its lowest staffing level since the Apollo era. If that target is not met by October, the start of FY 2026, NASA could initiate involuntary reductions in force (RIFs) to get there. Certain offices have already received RIFs.
Last week, more than 280 current and former NASA personnel, scientists, activists, and politicians penned the “Voyager Declaration”—a formal dissent to “rapid and wasteful changes” that they warn could have “catastrophic impacts” on the space agency’s workforce and mission. In addition to slashing personnel, the budget request trims NASA’s top-line funding by 24 percent. That would represent the largest single-year cut in the agency’s history, per The Planetary Society.
“Major programmatic shifts at NASA must be implemented strategically so that risks are managed carefully,” the Voyager authors wrote. “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 budget, which includes a 47 percent cut to science spending, has been broadly criticized. All living former heads of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, for example, earlier this month warned it would “starve the nation.” Several projects in the crosshairs are meeting cost and schedule targets or actively conducting science.
The Voyager Declaration authors described a “culture of fear and retaliation” that has discouraged employees from voicing dissent about these moves. More than half of the letter’s signatories chose to remain anonymous.
In a statement shared with FLYING, NASA press secretary Bethany Stevens claimed Stand Up For Science, the nonprofit group that organized the letter, “advances radical, discriminatory [diversity, equity, and inclusion] principles.” Stevens dismissed concerns about science funding, saying the White House has “proposed billions of dollars for NASA science.”
Science programs face a cut of nearly $3.5 billion. But Senate appropriators have pushed back, proposing a bill that would restore funding for dozens of projects facing cancellation.
Included in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, meanwhile, is $10 billion earmarked for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), Orion capsule, and other Artemis mission hardware. The budget proposes phasing out SLS and Orion after the Artemis III lunar landing, scheduled for mid-2027. But the Republican-led reconciliation bill funds both through Artemis V.
Further bipartisan opposition could thwart the White House’s cost-cutting initiatives. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have advocated to protect programs such as SLS and Orion—and the NASA and private sector personnel they employ.
But Joe Rothenberg, former NASA associate administrator for space flight, warned the damage may already be done.
“What is happening at NASA has long term and potentially unrecoverable consequences to U.S. scientific and technology leadership in not only space but in technology that impacts our quality of life on Earth,” Rothenberg wrote in a LinkedIn post. “Clearly the actions of the current administration and NASA leadership have mortgaged America’s space and scientific research capabilities, well beyond the point of being able to be recovered by any potential restoration of funding by Congress.”
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