‘Targeted’ and ‘cruel’: NASA staff react to layoffs as broader changes loom

By Jackie Wattles, CNN

(CNN) — NASA has outlined how it will respond to President Donald Trump’s order that federal agencies eliminate “waste, bloat, and insularity” — but it’s not yet clear just how sweeping the changes to the nation’s space agency may be.

The agency is planning to implement a reorganization plan as it chases some of the most ambitious goals yet in its nearly 67-year history, such as establishing a permanent lunar settlement after working to return humans to the moon’s surface later this decade.

“Over the past few weeks, an internal team has defined a strategy to identify and act on opportunities for optimizing our organization — whether by streamlining operations, reducing duplicative reporting and analysis, finding areas to accelerate decision velocity, or identifying cost-savings measures,” said NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro in a Friday email addressed to space agency staff that was obtained by CNN.

“Rather than prescribing specific changes at this point, our initial submission outlined areas we will explore to find the best approach for our agency’s future,” the email reads. “In the coming weeks, we will evaluate where we can make these changes, while also considering the potential for any new priorities from the administration and the next administrator once confirmed.”

NASA formed a “Tiger Team” that’s tasked with evaluating how the agency might implement potentially sweeping cuts, CNN reported last week. According to an emailed meeting invitation, the team aims to identify possible areas for cost reduction to comply with Trump’s executive orders, and the Department of Government Efficiency — the initiative to drastically cut federal spending, spearheaded by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

Tiger Team is a term NASA popularized in the Apollo era and refers to a group of professionals assembled to tackle a complex problem in real time during a space mission. In this case, a group of top leaders — including Petro — will hash out reforms, according to the meeting invitation.

Reshaping the space agency

Long considered one of the best places to work in the federal government, NASA is already in the midst of changes that have angered some high-ranking staff and left them feeling distrustful of current leadership.

Following Trump’s inauguration, Petro was tapped to lead the agency until the Senate confirms a new administrator. Petro, who previously led NASA’s Kennedy Space Center launch facilities in Florida, was unexpectedly picked over the associate administrator.

NASA struck a deal in February with the Office of Personnel Management that enabled the agency to dodge sweeping layoffs of probationary workers requested by DOGE. However, an unanticipated round of layoffs on March 10 gutted three offices, including two top policy divisions and some senior science and engineering personnel, at NASA’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

The move has rankled some of the agency’s remaining staff and left some questioning how broader changes may affect the agency’s science and exploration goals.

One senior NASA official who was among those given a layoff notice on March 10 — but who will remain an employee through April 10 — said they will not be paid for some accrued time-off awards. Two sources said the agency’s leadership would not allow at least some of the affected employees to collect bonuses they were expecting to receive this spring, nor will they be able to seek roles elsewhere in the agency.

“I think we were targeted,” one source told CNN, saying that denying bonus packages “is extremely cruel and callous and needless.”

A NASA spokesperson confirmed 23 employees were let go from the agency to comply with “reduction in force,” or RIF, directives put in place by the Trump Administration and DOGE, which is operating through the Office of Personnel Management.

The laid-off employees were given only 30 days’ notice — rather than the 60 days spelled out in the OPM’s workforce reduction guidance unless granted a waiver from the federal office. It’s unclear why the space agency did not wait to include those layoffs in its broader RIF plan. According to guidance from DOGE, agencies had to seek a waiver to implement a 30-day timeline.

NASA said in a March 10 statement to CNN that the 30-day timeline was implemented “in alignment with the urgent need to comply with Trump’s Executive Order and broader government restructuring timelines.”

It’s not clear why NASA described the need as “urgent” immediately following the 23 layoffs but on Friday indicated that it likely would not implement more sweeping changes until later this year.

Several employees not affected by the layoffs told CNN the cuts have sown new distrust in Petro’s leadership. She is expected to run the agency until Trump’s pick for NASA administrator, Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, is confirmed for the role.

“Everybody’s lost confidence,” said one NASA employee who was not among those laid off. “What was the urgency? It just seems cruel.”

Jarring cuts with more to come

The layoffs announced earlier in March included NASA’s chief scientist and staff as well as the entire staff of the Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy, or OTPS, which included the agency’s chief economist and chief technologist.

There are no plans to backfill those positions, a NASA spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.

The layoffs also included a specific Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility branch at agency headquarters — a group that was expected to be shuttered amid Trump’s directive to eliminate diversity-promoting programs across the federal government.

It’s not clear when NASA might make its RIF plan public. But employees who spoke with CNN said they are bracing for cuts that they think could impact 30% to 50% of the agency’s staff.

In an email Petro sent to agency staff on March 14, a copy of which was obtained by CNN, she acknowledged “questions and concerns” employees have raised about the March 10 layoffs.

“I’ve said it before — change is never easy, and I know there are a lot of questions about what’s ahead,” she wrote. “I want to assure you — the NASA workforce — and your skills, expertise, and commitment are at the heart of (RIF) discussions.”

Petro added that additional RIF actions are set to be “implemented in the second phase, which is due later in the spring.”

An uncertain future

CNN spoke with two NASA workers who were part of the latest layoffs as well as four employees who were unaffected by the cuts for this story. They requested anonymity to speak on sensitive issues.

The laid-off employees described feeling jilted by the new administration after years of dedicated public service that allowed them to hold top positions at the agency.

One source said the actions from leadership were callous, adding, “despite what Trump says, NASA is using a hatchet and not a scalpel” to implement job cuts.

Workers who spoke to CNN expressed concern about what the recent layoffs might mean for the agency’s integrity and ability to keep pace with the innovations necessary to achieve its stated goals.

The shuttered Office of the Chief Scientist was also charged with reviewing NASA activity for scientific integrity, a process that seeks to ensure the agency complies with rigorous ethical and technical standards.

“You want to make sure that the science and the message is not being altered,” one source told CNN.

For example, the source noted, if one of NASA’s partners wanted to alter the results of research in order to curry favor for a grant, for example, “someone can bring that to a scientific integrity officer as a concern.”

In a statement, a NASA spokesperson did not directly address a question about how review processes for scientific integrity may change post-layoffs.

“NASA will continue to conduct groundbreaking science through its many programs agencywide, including through the Science Mission Directorate,” the statement said.

The Science Mission Directorate is a large team of NASA workers who are tasked with carrying out research across fields including astrophysics, planetary science, lunar exploration and heliophysics, or research about the sun.

‘An opportunity to reshape’

Petro said in her March 14 email to employees that, while layoffs amount to “making difficult adjustments, we’re viewing this as an opportunity to reshape our workforce, ensuring we are doing what is statutorily required of us, while also providing American citizens with an efficient and effective agency.”

It’s not clear when Isaacman, Trump’s nominee for NASA administrator, will face his confirmation hearings in the Senate. The billionaire payments company CEO is also a close ally of Musk and has twice paid SpaceX to fly on privately funded missions to orbit.

With the recent layoffs, Isaacman is set to lead a workforce that includes individuals who appear increasingly alarmed about the direction the space agency is headed.

“There’s a massive concern across the agency that, among other issues, we’re going to have significant brain drain that will affect not only current missions but engineering and science for generations to come,” one NASA employee told CNN.

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