NASA's largest research library closes today amid budget cuts, material to be tossed away

NASA

• NASA's largest research library at Goddard shuts down permanently today
• Closure part of a reorganization plan, saving $10 million yearly
• Only three NASA libraries will remain open nationwide after this shutdown

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NASA's largest research library in Maryland - which has housed tens of thousands of books, journals and documents since 1959 - will shut permanently today.

The shutdown of the 1,00,000-volume library at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt comes under the Donald Trump administration's reorganisation plan. Under the drive, at least 13 buildings and over 100 science and engineering laboratories across the 1,270-acre campus will be shut by March 2026.

According to Jacob Richmond, a NASA spokesman, the agency would review the library holdings over the next 60 days. "Some material would be stored in a government warehouse while the rest would be tossed away," NYT said quoting him.

"This process is an established method that is used by federal agencies to properly dispose of federally owned property," Richmond added.

As per a statement on the Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians Association's website, specialised spacecraft-testing equipment and electronics have already been taken out and discarded.

Terming it a 'consolidation' and not a closure, NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens said, the changes were part of a long-planned reorganization that began before the Trump administration took office.

"Shutting down the facilities would save $10 million a year and avoid another $63.8 million in deferred maintenance," she told NYT.

The closure of the library follows the shutdown of seven other NASA libraries around the country since 2022. As of next week, only three will remain open.

Criticizing the move, senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, said that the Trump administration spent the last year attacking NASA Goddard and its work force. "It has threatened our efforts to explore space, deepen our understanding of Earth, and spur technological advancements that make our economy stronger and nation safer. These reports of closures at Goddard are deeply concerning — I will continue to push back on any actions that impact Goddard’s critical mission," he said.

Dave Williams, a planetary scientist who recently left Goddard under an early retirement program, said the library was a resource for engineers planning missions to the Moon and beyond.

For over three decades, Dr Williams compiled and preserved material available exclusively at the library and later digitised it for the online archive. By spending hours perusing old articles in The Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, for example, he was able to understand raw data from experiments on Apollo missions.

"You can't just get these things online. Older material hasn't been converted to a digital format, while many recent scientific and engineering journals and texts are behind a digital paywall and will be harder to access from outside the library," he said. Dr. Williams is former director of NASA's Space Science Data Coordinated Archive.