NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is preparing to drop off hundreds of employees this year, producer Laurie Leshin said in a , note to staff , sent Tuesday evening.
The La Cañada Flintridge research organization will let go of about 325 employees across the business on Wednesday, or around 5 % of its entire staff, the memo stated.
We had to “tighten our belt across the board” with lower costs and based on the planned job, Leshin wrote. I had hoped to write this communication elsewhere.
This is the second round of layoffs at JPL this time, a decrease spurred largely by big fiscal cuts to the , Mars Sample Return , mission, which is managed by JPL.
This year, NASA allocated$ 310 million to the effort to return Mars rocks, a significant decrease from the$ 822.3 million NASA spent on the program the prior year.
In January, 100 on-site vendors at JPL were let go after NASA instructed the lab , to minimize spending , in anticipation of a little tighter budget. In February, the lab , laid off 530 employees , — about 8 % of its workforce — and another 40 companies.
This week’s staff reduction does take JPL’s full workforce to about 5, 500 employees, a number that managers expect did remain steady” for the immediate future”, Leshin told staff.
The lessening had been in the plays prior to the U. S. presidential vote, she wrote, and “would be happening regardless of the new election results”.
On Wednesday, the letter instructed staff to work from home. Employers may receive an email notification of their employment status.
Last year was a turmoil level for Mars Sample Return, whose purpose is to collect stones from the Red Planet ‘s , Jezero crater , and bring them back to Earth for review.
In July 2023, the U. S. Senate presented NASA with an ultimatum , in its suggested resources: Either provide a schedule for completing the quest within the$ 5.3 billion budgeted, or risk withdrawal.
A sobering , independent review , two months later determined there was “near no probability” of Mars Sample Return making its proposed 2028 launch day, and” no credible” way to fulfill the goal within its current finances. The review board concluded that the mission’s design would likely cost up to$ 1 billion and not bring samples back to Earth until at least 2040.
In response, NASA issued a request for alternative proposals for all of its centers and the private sector, effectively forcing JPL to compete for its own project.
Lawmakers , lobbied , to preserve JPL’s funding, citing the need to protect jobs and keep the U. S. space program competitive. China has announced a standalone sample return mission that will launch in 2028 or 2030.
But funding across NASA, adjusted for inflation, has plummeted from its Apollo-era high and remained , essentially flat , for decades.
NASA’s budget for years has hovered around 0.1 % of total U. S. gross domestic product — less than one-eighth of its allowance during the mid-1960s.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine said earlier this year that the agency is suffering under , budgets that fall far short , of what’s needed to support its ambitions.
In a September  , report , commissioned by Congress, experts from the National Academies identified a number of the agency’s technological resources in decline from a lack of funds, including the , Deep Space Network , — an international collection of giant radio antennas overseen by JPL.
Either the U. S. must increase funding for NASA, or the agency must cut some missions, the authors concluded.
” For NASA, this is not a time for business as usual”, lead author Norman Augustine, a former executive at Lockheed Martin, said in September. It has developed concerns that have grown over the years.
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