Photo: JPL / NASA / U.S. Department of Energy
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has furloughed approximately 550 employees in its fourth round of layoffs since January 2024. This staff reduction comes amid the ongoing government shutdown, which has already led to significant budget cuts within federal agencies.
JPL Director Dave Gallagher announced the workforce realignment on October 13, stating that about 11% of the laboratory’s workforce across technical, business, and support areas would be impacted. Gallagher added that employees would be notified of their status on October 14.
“This week’s action, while not easy, is essential to securing JPL’s future by creating a leaner infrastructure, focusing on our core technical capabilities, maintaining fiscal discipline, and positioning us to compete in the evolving space ecosystem,” Gallagher explains.
NASA has also stated that its latest wave of layoffs is unrelated to the government shutdown, even as some 750,000 workers remain furloughed. Rather, NASA’s “leaner infrastructure” is more in response to the current administration and its sustained attacks on the organization’s funding. President Trump’s 2026 budget proposal, for example, outlines what Bill Nye has called an “extinction-level” budget cut of 24%. The reduced funds would effectively slash ongoing and planned missions, while also contributing to employee layoffs. In total, JPL has already terminated more than 1,500 staffers and contractors across these four rounds.
“I recognize this is a tremendous amount of change in a short period of time and will be challenging for our entire community in the coming weeks,” Gallagher noted in an email sent to employees and shared by Space.com. “While not easy, I believe taking these actions now will help the Lab transform at the scale and pace necessary to help achieve humanity’s boldest ambitions in space.”
Based in California and managed by Caltech, JPL focuses primarily on robotic space exploration, sending rovers, probes, and satellites across the solar system. Its flagship missions include the Psyche asteroid probe, the Europe Clipper, the Euclid Space Telescope, the Perseverance Mars rover, and the Deep Space Network, among others. JPL is NASA’s only federally funded research and development center, placing it in a precarious position as the threat of budget cuts continues.
On October 15, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order that blocks the Trump administration from laying off federal workers during the government shutdown. In her statement, U.S. District Judge Susan Yvonne Illston claimed that the Trump administration had “taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off [and that] the laws don’t apply to them anymore.”
As of this writing, the government has been shut down for nearly 15 days, and there has been little movement in Congress toward a resolution.
Sources: NASA lays off 550 employees at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in sweeping ‘realignment' of workforce; JPL Hit With Another 550 Layoffs as NASA’s Budget Crisis Deepens; JPL Workforce Update
Related Articles:
Smithsonian Shutters Its Museums and Zoo Amid Government Shutdown
Jane Fonda Relaunches McCarthy-Era Free Speech Initiative, With Support From 800 Celebs
