NASA’s chief middle for robotic planetary exploration is conducting one other spherical of layoffs.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California — which manages lots of NASA’s high-profile robotic missions, such because the Perseverance and Curiosity Mars rovers — introduced Tuesday (Nov. 12) that it’ll lay off about 325 workers, or roughly 5% of its workforce.
“The impacts are occurring throughout technical, enterprise and assist areas of the Laboratory,” JPL officers wrote in an replace on Tuesday. “These are painful however needed changes that can allow us to stick to our price range whereas persevering with our essential work for NASA and our nation.”
Associated: Information and details about NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
JPL, which is federally funded however managed by the California Institute of Expertise in Pasadena, additionally carried out a spherical of layoffs in February. These cuts affected about 8% of JPL’s workforce — 530 workers and 40 contractors.
The February layoffs have been spurred, partly, by a discount in funding this fiscal yr for Mars pattern return (MSR), a daring marketing campaign to get materials collected by Perseverance again to Earth within the 2030s.
All the MSR structure is now underneath evaluation, as the unique plan was deemed too costly; final yr, an impartial evaluation board pegged its price ticket at $8 billion to $11 billion.
JPL officers didn’t point out MSR when explaining this second spherical of layoffs, as an alternative citing funding shortfalls extra usually.
“With decrease budgets and primarily based on the forecasted work forward, we needed to tighten our belts throughout the board, and you will note that mirrored within the layoff impacts,” JPL Director Laurie Leshin mentioned in a memo to workers that the lab revealed with Tuesday’s layoff announcement.
Leshin mentioned that the outcomes of final week’s presidential election didn’t play a task within the layoffs, which go into impact on Wednesday (Nov. 13). She confused that “this motion could be taking place whatever the current election consequence.”
Leshin additionally expressed hope that there could be no want for additional layoffs for the foreseeable future.
“After this motion, we will likely be at about 5,500 JPL common workers,” she wrote. “I consider this can be a steady, supportable staffing stage transferring ahead. Whereas we will by no means be 100% sure of the long run price range, we will likely be properly positioned for the work forward.”
