NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville set to lose 279 senior staffers - report

NASA is set to lose 2,145 highly experienced staff – including hundreds in Huntsville - under the Donald Trump administration’s downsizing efforts, according to a POLITICO report.

The publication reported Wednesday that documents show the federal employees are levels GS-13 to GS-15, indicating mid-to-senior positions, “with specialized skills or management responsibilities.” They represent most of the 2,694 civil service staffers who have agreed to leave under the administration’s efforts to trim the federal workforce.

More than 10% of those senior-level reductions – 279 in total - are to take place at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, according to the report. Trump’s budget proposal called for a total reduction at MSFC of 526 full-time equivalent positions. The POLITICO report means 53% of those reductions would come in the form of highly experienced staffers.

The reductions follow a budgetary back-and-forth surrounding NASA’s flagship Artemis moon program, with Trump’s budget proposal calling for a historically large cut that included phasing out the Space Launch System and Orion. The SLS is the super-heavy, expendable launch vehicle that is scheduled to carry crews to lunar orbit -- aboard Orion -- throughout the life of the agency’s Artemis moon program.

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