&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Devastating legacy of Musk led DOGE: More than 20% NASA employees quit")
Nearly one in five NASA employees have applied to leave the premier space research agency in a development that is sending ripples through the organisation's structure. About 3,870 employees, more than 20 per cent, have applied to leave NASA through the Trump administration's deferred resignation programme. At the centre of this is the sweeping reform initiated by Elon Musk's brainchild, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
These resignations will shrink the workforce of NASA from 18000 to nearly 14,000, including the 500 left by normal attrition.
DOGE’s Role: Central & Controversial
The deferred resignation programme was a buyout programme launched by the White House's Department of Government Efficiency. Established in January 2025 under the oversight of a billionaire and a close confidant of the US President Donald Trump to slash federal waste, modernise bureaucracy, and eliminate redundancies.
In mid-February, DOGE audited NASA, its contracts and budgeting system. As a result, about 900 employees left the organisation in the first round, and 3000 more followed second round under the deferred resignation programme. A budget proposal issued in May by the White House saw NASA's funding cut by 25 per cent from $24 billion to $18 billion for the FY 25-26.
Notably among the departing are 2,000 senior-level employees, including scientists, engineers, and managers, many essential to the ongoing missions. One Caltech research scientist, Dr. Jessie Christiansen, warned about “deep knowledge and expertise holes across all NASA centres,”
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“Safety remains a top priority for our agency as we balance the need to become a more streamlined and more efficient organisation and work to ensure we remain fully capable of pursuing a Golden Era of exploration and innovation, including to the Moon and Mars,” said NASA spokesperson Cheryl Warner.
There is a crisis with NASA's top leadership; earlier, it was supposed to be the billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman, a friend of Elon Musk. But his nomination was cancelled just ahead of the Senate confirmation, and public fallout followed between Elon Musk and Trump. Now, Sean Duffy, the Transportation Secretary, is temporarily leading the premier research agency.
