NASA To Shed More Than 2,100 Positions As Agency Slims Down

Some 2,145 senior-ranking NASA employees are slated to depart as part of a staff reduction effort, raising concerns for White House space policy and threatening to strip the agency of decades of expertise, POLITICO reported on Wednesday.

These employees hold GS-13 to GS-15 positions, senior government ranks usually reserved for individuals with specialized skills or managerial roles.

The impact is especially pronounced at the top, with 875 GS-15 employees expected to leave, per documents seen by the outlet.

The 2,145 employees represent the majority of the 2,694 civil staff who have agreed to depart NASA under a series of offers aligned with broader administration efforts to reduce the federal workforce, according to the documents. NASA has provided options such as early retirement, buyouts, and deferred resignations, the outlet said.

Many of those departing are integral to NASA’s core missions, with 1,818 employees working in key areas like science and human spaceflight. The remainder hold mission support positions, including roles in IT, facilities management, and finance.

“You’re losing the managerial and core technical expertise of the agency,” Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, told POLITICO. “What’s the strategy, and what do we hope to achieve here?”

The departures come in the wake of a proposed White House budget for 2026 that would cut NASA’s funding by 25 percent and reduce its workforce by over 5,000 employees. If approved by Congress, these cuts would leave the agency operating with its smallest budget and staff levels since the early 1960s, POLITICO noted.

Staff reductions are spread across all 10 of NASA’s regional centers, which handle a wide range of responsibilities—from planning astronaut missions to the moon to launching deep space probes.

The Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland faces the largest loss, with 607 staff departing; Johnson Space Center in Texas will lose 366; Kennedy Space Center in Florida will lose 311; and NASA headquarters in Washington will lose 307. Langley Research Center in Virginia is set to lose 281, Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama will lose 279, and Glenn Research Center in Cleveland will lose 191 staff, the outlet reported, citing the documents.

In some cases, the cuts align with White House priorities. For example, although the staff reductions at Goddard appear significant, the White House actually aims to cut 1,414 positions at the science-focused center, the outlet said.

However, the departure rates at other centers indicate the White House may lose personnel crucial to its ambitious plans to send astronauts to the moon by mid-2027 and eventually to Mars. Both missions are highly technical and logistically demanding, with substantial work still ahead, the report said.

At Johnson Space Center, which oversees NASA’s human spaceflight operations, 366 staff are set to depart, nearly matching the White House’s 2026 budget target of 419 cuts.

At Kennedy Space Center, NASA’s main rocket launch facility, 311 have left out of a planned 504 reductions. Since NASA continues to accept deferred resignations, these numbers could rise further, POLITICO noted.

“NASA remains committed to our mission as we work within a more prioritized budget,” said NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens. “We are working closely with the Administration to ensure that America continues to lead the way in space exploration, advancing progress on key goals, including the Moon and Mars.”

Even modest reductions can have a significant impact, the report said. NASA’s legislative affairs team, responsible for responding to congressional inquiries about the agency’s mission, is losing five staff members. With a typical staff size of around 35, this represents nearly a 15 percent cut, according to a former employee who spoke to POLITICO anonymously about staffing levels.

Another anonymous NASA employee leaving the agency expressed concern that such a high percentage of departures within their office would likely disrupt operations.

“It’s very significant,” he told the outlet. “It’s leaving us with a lot of experience drain.”