NASA's JPL cuts 550 jobs in latest round of layoffs at La Cañada Flintridge facility

Layoff notices went retired Tuesday to 550 employees astatine NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory successful effect to ongoing budgetary chaos astatine the legendary La Cañada Flintridge facility.

The layoffs reduced the worker headcount by much than 10% and affected teams crossed the institution, according to aggregate sources not authorized to talk publicly.

A reorganization for remaining staffers volition beryllium announced connected Wednesday.

“This week’s action, portion not easy, is indispensable to securing JPL’s aboriginal by creating a leaner infrastructure, focusing connected our halfway method capabilities, maintaining fiscal discipline, and positioning america to vie successful the evolving abstraction ecosystem,” JPL Director Dave Gallagher said successful a connection Monday.

The cuts were portion of a reorganization that began successful July, helium said, and are not related to the national authorities shutdown that began connected Oct. 1.

JPL staffers are employed by Caltech, and nary person been furloughed since the standoff betwixt Democrats and Republicans successful Congress began. But the probe installation started preparing for a leaner aboriginal adjacent earlier President Trump took office, and is enduring 1 of the astir challenging stretches successful its astir 89-year history.

“The morale has been arsenic debased arsenic anyone has seen successful decades, possibly ever,” an worker spared by the layoffs said. “The uncertainty is precise unsettling. ... We expect much radical volition permission successful the coming months owed to continued uncertainty connected the benignant of enactment that whitethorn oregon whitethorn not come.”

Layoffs and attrition person reduced JPL’s wide staffing by astir one-third successful the past 2 years, sources astatine the enactment said, from astir 6,500 to astir 4,500 aft this week’s reduction. JPL endured 3 rounds of layoffs past twelvemonth alone, prompted by monolithic national fund cuts for its beleaguered Mars Sample Return mission.

The Eaton occurrence came perilously adjacent to the field successful January, forcing immoderate 20% of the agency’s workforce to evacuate their homes. About 210 employees mislaid their homes successful the fire, and dozens much were displaced for months.

Then successful May, the Trump medication projected a $6-billion chopped from NASA’s $24.8-billion fund for the coming fiscal year, a 24% driblet from its existent allocation.

While some the House and Senate appropriations committees would mostly support the agency’s wide backing intact, their budgets reallocate wealth wrong the abstraction bureau successful ways that could profoundly impact JPL’s work.

The House appropriations measure would support NASA’s backing dependable but chopped astir $1.3 cardinal from NASA’s $7.3 cardinal Science Mission Directorate, which funds galore of the missions that JPL manages. The Senate bill, successful contrast, would support the subject program’s funding.

It’s not yet wide however the astir caller layoffs volition impact JPL’s enactment connected drought, occurrence and clime change. No missions person yet been canceled oregon paused. But with nary extremity successful show to the stalemate, JPL’s aboriginal remains successful limbo.

“JPL is simply a nationalist plus that has helped the United States execute immoderate of the top feats successful abstraction and subject for decades,” Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) said. “Taken unneurotic with past year’s layoffs, this volition effect successful an untold nonaccomplishment of technological cognition and expertise that threatens the precise aboriginal of American enactment successful abstraction exploration and technological discovery.”

Times unit writer Hayley Smith contributed to this report.