NASA is once again experiencing a wave of layoffs. This time the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California is under impact. On November 12, the layoff of 325 employees — about 5% of the staff — was announced, the second one this year. Earlier in February, JPL reduced its staff by 530 people, accounting for 8% of the workforce, due to a decrease in NASA’s overall budget.
The main reason for the cuts was the limited funding for the Mars Sample Return mission: this year, the budget for the project was cut from more than $900 million to about $300 million. The future of this ambitious mission remains in doubt, and possible further revisions could determine its fate.
The layoffs impacted various areas of JPL’s work, including technical, project, business, and support areas. According to Lab Director Laurie Leshin, these are forced measures in response to projected work and budget cuts. She pointed out that the decisions made were not related to a specific mission to Mars or the election results, but were part of the overall actions aligned with Federal Fiscal Year 2025.
NASA has also experienced a decrease in funding for other projects. For example, the agency canceled the VIPER Mars rover mission to the Moon, on which it had already spent $450 million, due to budget constraints. The request for an increase in the 2024 budget was not granted: instead, NASA received 2% less funding, more than $2 billion less than needed.
Meanwhile, NASA remains an important economic engine: in 2023, the agency’s operations generated $75.6 billion for the U.S. economy, triple its budget. This demonstrates that, despite its huge economic contribution, the agency does not receive adequate funding for its needs and ambitions.
We previously reported on how NASA’s reliance on the Boeing Starliner nearly ruined the U.S. space program.
Provided by NASA
