NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will lay off hundreds of employees this week in anticipation of massive funding cuts in the upcoming federal budget, JPL Director Laurie Leshin told staff Tuesday.
Despite pleas to NASA and the White House from California lawmakers eager to preserve jobs at the La Cañada Flintridge research institution, the lab is laying off 530 employees (about 8% of its workforce). and 40 additional contractors, Leshin said in a memo to staff.
“These cuts are among the most difficult we have had to make, even as we have tried to reduce our spending in recent months,” Leshin wrote. “As much as we wish we didn't have to take this action, we must move forward now to protect against even deeper cuts in the future if we had to wait.”
This is the second round of layoffs at JPL since the year began. In January, 100 contractors at the site lost their jobs after NASA ordered the laboratory to reduce spending in anticipation of severe budget cuts for the Sample return mission to Marsan ambitious effort managed by JPL that would bring pieces of the Red Planet to Earth for study.
Although Congress has not yet finalized appropriations for next year, NASA has ordered JPL to prepare for a federal budget that could limit spending on Mars sample return in fiscal 2024 to $300 million, the 36% of the previous year's $822 million budget allocation and less. of a third of the $949 million the Biden administration has requested for the program.
“Spending more than that amount, without final legislation in place, would be reckless and waste money NASA does not have,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.
JPL employees will find out if they will lose their jobs on Wednesday. Most JPL employees have been ordered to work remotely “so that everyone can be in a safe and comfortable environment on a stressful day,” Leshin wrote. “Most people will not be able to enter the lab during this mandatory remote work day.”
In recent months, California lawmakers have pleaded with NASA to preserve jobs at the agency, which currently employs about 6,000 full-time people.
Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of more than 20 members of California's congressional delegation sent a letter to the White House Office of Management and Budget protesting NASA's “deeply misguided decision” to preemptively cut spending before appropriations were finalized.
“Make no mistake: These crushing job cuts are a direct result of the Administration's premature decision to bypass Congress's spending authority and unilaterally cut vital funding for JPL's Mars Sample Return mission,” said Senator Alex Padilla, signatory of the letter, in a statement. “These dramatic cuts are devastating to our local workforce and will significantly set back California and the United States' scientific and space leadership at this critical time.”
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) agreed that the job cuts will hurt Southern California workers, but expressed hope they can be reversed. “I am hopeful that in the coming weeks we can work to negotiate an agreement with the Administration and Congress to restore funding to the levels necessary to rehire workers,” she said in a statement.
The Mars Sample Return mission, a joint project with the European Space Agency, has been plagued by delays and cost overruns.
A independent review commissioned by NASA last year determined that there was a “near zero chance” that the mission would reach its 2028 launch date.
The project is now on hold while NASA analyzes the review board's findings. The team tasked with that review is scheduled to make its recommendations to NASA in March or April, associate administrator for science Nicky Fox said last week during a public meeting of the agency's Science Mission Directorate.
