JPL is laying off another 550 workers as NASA’s budget crisis worsens

Nearly 550 employees at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are losing their jobs today in the fourth round of layoffs since the beginning of last year. This latest cut adds to growing uncertainty about the future of the federally funded research center and the missions in which it is involved.

In an update Monday, JPL Director Dave Gallagher Announce The California-based laboratory will undergo staff reductions affecting approximately 11% of its workforce in technical, business and support areas. The downgrade is part of a reorganization that began in July and is not related to the current government shutdown, according to the update.

“I realize this represents a tremendous amount of change in a short period of time and will challenge our entire community in the coming weeks,” Gallagher wrote in an internal memo to JPL staff, according to an internal memo to JPL staff. Watch NASA.

“While it’s not easy, I believe taking these actions now will help the laboratory transform at the scale and pace needed to help realize humanity’s boldest ambitions in space,” he said.

There seem to be endless strikes to the workforce at JPL

With the addition of this latest staff reduction, JPL has laid off more than 1,500 employees and contractors in four rounds of cuts since January 2024. The first round saw 100 contractors firedfollowed by 530 employees and 40 other contractors in February 2024. In November of that year, an additional 325 employees were hired Leave it.

Lori Lishin, the lab’s director during the 2024 layoffs, cited budget constraints and uncertainties surrounding the JPL-led Mars Sample Return mission as the reason for the cuts. In May 2025, a few days after President Donald Trump Released The “skinny” budget request for fiscal year 2026 – is to resign “For personal reasons” and was replaced by Gallagher.

This budget request sought to Reducing NASA’s overall budget by about $6 billion Compared to 2025, which puts some of the agency’s most ambitious tasks on its plate. now, The fate of those tasks hangs in the balance As we enter the third week of the government shutdown due to a budget dispute.

NASA is at odds with its own mission

Two days before the shutdown, Democratic staffers were on the Senate Commerce Committee issued a report The White House Budget Office has allegedly been pressuring NASA to implement the “devastating” cuts outlined in its 2026 budget proposal for months, citing evidence obtained from whistleblower documents and interviews.

Once again, JPL said this latest staff reduction is part of a reorganization unrelated to the government shutdown. However, this is unfolding amid perceived political pressure to downsize NASA regardless of whether Trump’s budget request for the agency is ultimately approved.

“I’ve talked to several people who have been told directly that this is what’s going on,” Keith Cowing, an astrobiologist and former NASA employee who now works as an editor at NASA Watch, told Gizmodo. “(NASA) has an internal verbal order that says this is the budget they’re working on, and if there’s a shutdown, this is where we’re going to go,” Cowing said.

The Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate NASA’s workforce undermine its goal of… Defeat China and return it to the moon And maintain U.S. leadership in space. Even if NASA is spared major budget cuts and major mission cancellations, Loss of thousands of engineers and scientists It will inevitably hinder their ability to achieve these ambitious goals.

“If you really want NASA to be that leader — not just to win, but to show why we win — then you would do exactly the opposite of what you’re doing at NASA now,” Cowing said.

JPL’s press office declined to comment and instead referred Gizmodo to a workforce update made Monday.