NASA Goddard’s shrinking workforce could stifle future space missions, experts say
2025 was a brutal year of budget cuts and workforce attrition at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the home base for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Experts worry Goddard—and NASA’s space science—may never recover
Goddard’s workforce has been reduced by 40 percent since March 2020, from 10,000 federal workers and contractors to just 6,000. Despite a recent hiring of 600 workers, current and former employees worry the center’s diminished size could hinder its ability to build future space telescopes like the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
In 2025, the Roman Space Telescope, costing $4.3 billion, successfully launched and is now en route to its orbit. Once in position, it will provide unprecedented cosmic images and observations of exoplanets. However, with several testing and technology development labs shut down and engineering teams broken up, some experts believe Goddard may struggle to replicate such complex missions.
NASA's budget cuts and workforce reductions, particularly under the Trump administration, have hit Goddard disproportionately compared to other NASA centers. The reduction is attributed to NASA prioritizing moon landing missions by 2028 and the White House's redirection of funds. While NASA maintains its capacity to build space telescopes and other spacecraft, former employees argue that the center's leadership has failed to effectively communicate its shifting focus, causing uncertainty and job losses.
Written by urgent.news from Scientific American's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
