NASA, Trump
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Draconian budget and staff cuts could mean another Challenger disaster, warn current and former NASA employees.
The signatories of the “Voyager Declaration” warned the space agency’s leadership about the consequences of major budget cuts that would halt many science missions.
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.
In May, the White House released a budget proposal that would slash NASA funding. But a Senate appropriations plan would protect the agency's budget.
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’s departure from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center comes soon after the resignation of the director of JPL.