NASA's California-based Jet Propulsion Lab cuts 325 jobs after 500 in early round

Written by Copernical Team Thursday, 14 November 2024 06:48

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Washington DC (UPI) Nov 13, 2024

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has laid-off an additional 325 workers after an earlier round of 500 job cuts earlier in the year, largely because of budgetary constraints. "The impacts are occurring across technical, business and support areas of the Laboratory," JPL officials wrote in a Tuesday update. NASA's federally-funded JPL is managed by the California Institute of Techn

NASA's California-based Jet Propulsion Lab cuts 325 jobs after 500 in early round
by Chris Benson
Washington DC (UPI) Nov 13, 2024

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has laid-off an additional 325 workers after an earlier round of 500 job cuts earlier in the year, largely because of budgetary constraints.

"The impacts are occurring across technical, business and support areas of the Laboratory," JPL officials wrote in a Tuesday update.

NASA's federally-funded JPL is managed by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. The job terminations were effective Wednesday.

"These are painful but necessary adjustments that will enable us to adhere to our budget while continuing our important work for NASA and our nation."

In February, layoffs saw 8% of its workforce eliminated with 532 employees and at least 100 federal contractors by a loss in funding for the Mars sample return project, which aimed to get material collected by the Perseverance rover on Mars back to Earth by sometime in the 2030s.

NASA requested $950 million for the mission but only received $300 million. It also froze hiring at the time.

Meanwhile, the project is currently under a review. Last year, an independent review said its anticipated cost would be somewhere between $8 billion and $11 billion.

"As part of our workforce assessment and determining where reductions are being made," read part of the JPL's memo, "we have taken time to complete a full review of our competencies, future mission needs, and we have established guidance for our core capabilities across the laboratory."

According to a JPL official, the cuts were not in response to the results of last week's presidential election.

"With lower budgets and based on the forecasted work ahead, we had to tighten our belts across the board, and you will see that reflected in the layoff impacts," JPL Director Laurie Leshin said in a memo.

Leshin added how "after this action" the facility will be down to roughly 5,500 "regular" JPL employees.

"I believe this is a stable, supportable staffing level moving forward," she said.

However, despite how NASA's JPL "can never" be entirely certain of future budgets, especially with a large scale change in political leadership and ideology expected to take place in Washington, "we will be well positioned for the work ahead."