NASA faces massive brain drain: Over 2,100 senior staff to exit amid Trump’s budget cuts

Over 2,000 senior staff set to leave NASA under agency push(Image: AFP)

Around 2,145 senior employees at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are set to depart as part of a staff reduction effort, according to documents obtained by Politico.

The departing employees hold senior government ranks from GS-13 to GS-15, the report stated, noting that NASA has offered early retirement, buyouts, and deferred resignations. The majority of losses are at higher levels, with 875 GS-15 employees expected to leave, according to the documents.

A NASA staffer who is leaving said to the Politico, “It’s leaving us with a lot of experience drain,” adding that the large percentage of people departing from their office would likely impact operations.

“NASA remains committed to our mission as we work within a more prioritized budget", the agency’s spokesperson Bethany Stevens told Reuters in an emailed statement.

Reacting to the report, Dr. Jessie Christiansen, a research scientist at Caltech/IPAC and chief scientist at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, told The Independent that losing senior staff members would leave “deep knowledge and expertise holes across all NASA centers and impact all NASA's strategic plans.”

“We have a direct and immediate precedent for how difficult it is to rebuild institutional knowledge once it has been lost with our plans to return to the moon. We are still trying to get back to the capabilities we had sixty years ago,” Christiansen noted.

In recent months, under President Donald Trump's administration, the US space industry and NASA’s 18,000-strong workforce have faced uncertainty due to potential layoffs and proposed budget cuts that could eliminate numerous science programs, all while the agency operates without a confirmed administrator.