“An absolute tragedy”: the bleeding continues, NASA lays off 550 employees from its elite laboratory

On October 14, 550 new employees at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory received their dismissal letters, NASA said in a terse press release. This fourth round in ten months brings the number of departures to 1,500 since the start of 2024, reducing the workforce from 6,500 to 4,500 people.

NASA JPL loses a third of its workforce in ten months

In the corridors of the Californian center which pilots NASA’s robotic missions, the atmosphere is funereal. On the dedicated forum at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Redditthe testimonies follow one another, heavy with resignation. An employee says: “The atmosphere in the lab was gloomy today. It felt like everyone was in mourning. We tried to keep a positive, but realistic attitude, we even took a last group photo in front of the concrete JPL logo. But it was impossible to hide this feeling of ‘end of the world’ that weighs on all of our heads.” The words are heavy.

Dave Gallagher, director of the laboratory, mechanically justifies these cuts by the need to establish “a more slender infrastructure” and maintain “fiscal discipline”. He clarified that the reorganization, initiated in July, would not be linked to the current government shutdown.

And yet, the calendar raises questions. Last May, the Trump administration presented a budget request for 2026 that cut NASA by 24% and its science programs by almost half.

Worse still, as we explained to you recently, fear has taken hold in the corridors of the American space agency. Several whistleblowers claim that the reforms imposed by the administration directly endanger the safety of space missions. One of them says he observes problems on a daily basis, while another blurts out this chilling sentence: “No one will come and save us.”

Know-how that goes up in smoke

Jenny Kampmeier, a newly fired systems engineer on the Europa Clipper mission, sums up the problem: “People who were there for 30, 40 years, with an incredible wealth of knowledge. It will take a very long time to piece that together.” Several emblematic missions, including the return of Martian samples that JPL was to orchestrate, are now threatened.

Democratic Representative Judy Chu, whose district is home to the laboratory, denounces “an absolute tragedy” and warns that this hemorrhage “threatens the very future of American leadership in space exploration”.

The paradox is striking: while Washington displays the ambition to get ahead of China in returning to the Moonthe institution that designed the Mars rovers and the Voyager probes is emptying itself of its substance. Once dispersed, this expertise will take decades to reconstitute. If indeed it can be.

Want to save even more? Discover our promo codes selected for you.