Draconian budget and staff cuts could mean another Challenger disaster, warn current and former NASA employees.

Makenzie Lystrup’s departure from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center comes soon after the resignation of the director of JPL.

A key source told Ars that the recent budget action in the House and Senate indicates that legislators are taking the impoundment threat from the Office of Management and Budget seriously. Their best weapon in this fight would be to pass a budget on time, and they appear to be trying to do so.

Makenzie Lystrup to step down on August 1 as Trump administration proposes 25% cut to NASA's overall budget, affecting agency's science division - Anadolu Ajansı

The departures are playing out as NASA and other government agencies contend with significant cuts to funding and personnel.

On Monday, NASA announced that Makenzie Lystrup will leave her post as director of the Goddard Space Flight Center on Friday, August 1. Lystrup has held the top job at Goddard since April 2023, overseeing a staff of more than 8,000 civil servants and contractor employees, and a budget last year of about $4.7 billion.

NASA has had a difficult early summer, between a proposed budget that would eviscerate the space agency’s science programs and President Trump’s sudden withdrawal of billionaire private space traveler Jared Isaacman from the nomination to be administrator of NASA. Even so, there are signs that NASA’s fortunes may be looking up.