Most of the NASA employees who are leaving their jobs under the Trump administration's workforce-cutting efforts are in senior roles—a loss of skills and experience that could imperil goals such as landing astronauts on the moon and Mars. Of the 2,694 civil staff members who have agreed to quit, at least 2,145 are in GS-13 to GS-15 positions, reports Politico, which has seen documents on the departures. Employees in those ranks usually are managers or have specialized skills. About 1,818 of them work in mission areas such as science or human space flight, while the rest are in mission support roles including IT, facilities management, or finance.
"You're losing the managerial and core technical expertise of the agency," said Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at the Planetary Society. "NASA remains committed to our mission as we work within a more prioritized budget," a spokesperson said, adding that moon and Mars missions will remain priorities. Congress could overrule the administration's budget, but it might still be difficult to bring back employees who have left. Their skills can mean they're in demand from the growing number of space companies as well as other industries such as those working in robotics, per Politico.
The Trump administration has proposed cutting NASA's funding by 25% and dropping more than 5,000 employees for fiscal 2026. The science budget is in for a 47% reduction, and every living former science chief for the agency has signed a letter to Congress opposing the cut, per Space. Not only would the cuts end dozens of current and future missions, the letter says, they would waste investments already made and remove the US as a world leader in space science—leaving the field to China and other nations.
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