{"id":845074,"date":"2025-05-01T20:12:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T01:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/nelson-concerned-about-nasa-layoffs-and-other-changes\/"},"modified":"2025-05-01T20:12:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T01:12:23","slug":"nelson-concerned-about-nasa-layoffs-and-other-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/01\/nelson-concerned-about-nasa-layoffs-and-other-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Nelson concerned about NASA layoffs and other changes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson speaking on a panel March 29 during the “Earth to Space” festival at the Kennedy Center. Credit:<\/span> SpaceNews\/Jeff Foust<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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WASHINGTON \u2014 Former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says he is concerned about some of the recent changes at the agency, such as the firing of its chief scientist.<\/p>\n

Speaking on a panel March 29 as part of the Kennedy Center\u2019s \u201cEarth to Space\u201d festival here, Nelson expressed his concerns that the agency\u2019s work on Earth science might be affected by policy changes by the new administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say that the first person that was fired at NASA\u201d in a round of layoffs announced March 10<\/a>, he said, \u201cwas the chief scientist and chief climate officer, and so I think we need to be concerned about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA said it was closing the Office of the Chief Scientist as well as its Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Branch of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, affecting 23 employees. That included Kate Calvin, a climate scientist who has been NASA\u2019s chief scientist since 2022.<\/p>\n

Many scientists are concerned that the agency\u2019s Earth science programs could be targeted for major cuts in the upcoming fiscal year 2026 budget proposal, which by some reports could slash NASA\u2019s overall science programs by as much as 50%. Nelson, on the panel, emphasized his belief in the importance of Earth science at NASA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it important to us that we know so that we can be better stewards of what we have on this extraordinary planet?\u201d Nelson asked. \u201cI think this is where politics starts to get in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview after the panel, Nelson noted that despite the concerns about the agency\u2019s Earth science work, NASA has so far been spared sharper cuts, like widespread layoffs of \u201cprobationary\u201d civil servants, seen elsewhere in the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I take the long view,\u201d he said. \u201cI think compared to other agencies, NASA is not getting it nearly as bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

He praised Janet Petro, NASA\u2019s acting administrator, for efforts to stave off bigger cuts and other changes. \u201cI do understand that Janet is trying to hold them off on some things,\u201d he said, allowing NASA to move ahead with the Artemis 2 mission scheduled for launch in about a year. He added, though, that some people still at the agency he talked with recently are concerned and \u201cfearful\u201d of potential future changes, like a future round of layoffs.<\/p>\n

Nelson, though, did note concerns about \u201cpolitical interference,\u201d citing comments made by NASA\u2019s current press secretary, Bethany Stevens, in a recent Fox News interview<\/a>. In that interview, Stevens, a political appointee, discussed the return of the Crew-9 mission that brought back Starliner astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who had been on the station since June.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a huge win for the Trump administration, and it would not have happened without President Trump\u2019s intervention,\u201d she claimed. However, the decision to return Williams and Wilmore on the Crew-9 mission was made by NASA in August 2024, before Donald Trump won election to a second term.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, none of that is the case,\u201d Nelson said of those comments in the interview. \u201cI had the responsibility of making the final decision. It was an easy decision because NASA was entirely unanimous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson also said he was unaware of any proposal that Elon Musk made to bring Williams and Wilmore back earlier. The SpaceX chief executive, also a closer adviser to President Trump, has stated several times that he proposed to the Biden administration an earlier return for the two astronauts only to be rejected. Musk, though, has not provided any details about that proposal or who in the White House rejected it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe White House, if they had been contacted, they would have contacted me,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cNone of that occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews.<\/p>\n

He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor\u2019s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science…\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson speaking on a panel March 29 during the “Earth to Space” festival at the Kennedy Center. Credit: SpaceNews\/Jeff Foust WASHINGTON \u2014 Former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson says he is concerned about some of the recent changes at the agency, such as the firing of its chief scientist. Speaking on a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":845075,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2486,2195],"tags":[13039,8203],"class_list":{"0":"post-845074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-concerned","8":"category-nelson","9":"tag-concerned","10":"tag-nelson"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}