NASA’s top officials have thousands of staff left the agency
Can be added Another name for the thousands of employees leaving NASA as the Trump administration prizes space agencies for a 25% budget cut.
NASA announced on Monday that Makenzie Lystrup will step down from his position as director of Goddard Space Flight Center on Friday, August 1st. Lystrup has been a top job at Goddard since April 2023, overseeing staff for more than 8,000 civil servants and contractor employees last year, overseeing a budget of around $47 billion.
These figures make Goddard the largest of NASA’s 10 field centers dedicated primarily to scientific research and development of robotic space missions, with budgets and labor comparable to NASA’s human spaceflight centers in Texas, Florida and Alabama. Goddard personnel will be managing James Webb and Hubble Telescopes in space, while Goddard engineers are building another flagship observatory, the Nancy Grace Roma space telescope, which will be released later next year.
“We are grateful to Makenzie for his leadership at NASA Goddard over more than two years, including his work in inspiring the golden age of explorers, scientists and engineers,” said Vanessa Wyche, NASA’s acting associate administrator.
Goddard’s assistant director, Cynthia Simmons, will take over the acting chief of the Space Center. Simmons began working at Goddard 25 years ago as a contract engineer.
Lystrup came to NASA from Ball Aerospace, now part of BAE Systems, to manage the company’s work on civil space projects for NASA and other federal agencies. Before joining Ball Aerospace, Lystrup received his PhD in Astrophysics from the University of London College and conducted his research as a planetary astronomer.
Makenzie Lystrup was in a panel discussion with the Agency Center Director at the 2024 Artemis Suppliers Conference in Washington, DC.Provided by Joel Kowsky/NASA
Official opposition
Announcement of departure from Lystrup from Goddard is Open letter to NASA interim administratorsTransportation Secretary Shawn Duffysigned by hundreds of current and former agency employees. The letter entitled “Voyager Declaration” identifies what signatories call “recent policies that threaten to wasting public resources, violating human safety, weakening national security and undermining core NASA missions.”
“NASA’s key program shifts need to be implemented strategically so that risks are managed carefully,” reads the letter. “Instead, the last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes that undermined our mission and had a devastating impact on the NASA workforce. We are forced to speak out when our leadership prioritizes political momentum over human safety, scientific advancement and the efficient use of public resources.”
The letter is modelled on a similar document of objection written by employees protesting cuts and policy changes at the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency.