Trump’s Dismantling of NASA Has Officially Begun

NASA has begun implementing its reduction in force (RIF) approach, closing three offices and laying off staff in compliance with executive orders by the new administration that target the federal workforce.

NASA announced on Monday that it will be closing the Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy; the Office of the Chief Scientist; and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Branch of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Twenty-three employees will be affected by the cuts, according to SpacePolicyOnline.com.

The recent workforce cuts are in response to an executive order to end “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing,” and another to implement the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) workforce optimization initiative.

“While this will mean 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,” Janet Petro, acting NASA administrator, wrote in a letter to the staff, according to NASA Watch, an independent blog not affiliated with the space agency.

NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy “brings together diverse, multidisciplinary experts to provide NASA leadership with analytic, strategic, and decisional insights in the form of quick-turn analyses, memos, and reports,” according to its website. The Office of the Chief Scientist serves as principal advisor to the NASA administrator on the agency’s science programs and “represents all of the scientific endeavors in the agency, ensuring they are aligned with and fulfill the administration’s science objectives,” NASA’s website reads.

Shortly after the inauguration of Donald Trump in January, NASA moved to close offices related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) at the agency and cancel related contracts. That was in response to Trump’s executive order to terminate federal employees in diversity, equity, and inclusion roles.

The recent layoffs, on the other hand, are part of the administration’s efforts to reduce government employees and bureaucracy, while improving efficiency as part of the Elon Musk-led DOGE initiative. NASA isn’t the only federal agency forced to reduce its workforce in light of Trump’s recent orders. The U.S. weather agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is set to lay off approximately 20% of its workforce.

The latest workforce cuts are part of a worrying sign that NASA may be at risk of losing a large chunk of its science activities under the current administration, which seems to favor private spaceflight, as reflected in Trump’s pending choice of commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman to lead the agency. DOGE’s leader Musk has also expressed dismay at the bureaucracy of national space programs, pushing for a more aggressive approach that is dismantling federal agencies. And as indicated by those looming NOAA cuts, the current administration doesn’t care for inconvenient truths like climate change—an area where NASA plays a crucial research role. This first round of cuts is just the beginning of what’s likely to be an exceptionally painful era in NASA history.