GREENBELT,MD – Employees at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center are voicing deep concerns that the agency is systematically dismantling the iconic research campus,fearing a important loss to the U.S. space program. The anxieties stem from a series of recent events - including the abrupt resignation of goddard’s leader, Makenzie Lystrup, in July, coupled with job losses, looming budget cuts, and what staff describe as inconsistent interaction from leadership.
Goddard, responsible for critical missions including all of NASA’s moon rovers and spacecraft sent to Jupiter and other planets, is at a pivotal moment. While NASA maintains it is indeed strategically consolidating buildings, employees fear the changes represent a quiet gutting of the center, possibly crippling its ability to conduct groundbreaking research. Hundreds of scientists and current and former NASA employees publicly expressed thier concerns in July, signing a declaration lambasting what they perceived as “rapid and wasteful changes” under the Trump management.
The unrest follows the cancellation of a lease for the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, an offshoot laboratory in New York city, earlier this year, further fueling confusion and anger among NASA scientists. “It feels like an existential crisis; Goddard will either no longer exist at all or no longer exist the way it should,” one Goddard employee told CNN.
Goddard’s unique role in missions deemed less commercially viable, such as those to Jupiter, is a particular concern. “Not many people are sending missions to Jupiter except for NASA Goddard,” the employee explained. “It’s not profitable, so private industry wouldn’t do it.”
Established in 1959, Goddard has been central to some of NASA’s most significant achievements, including the development and operation of the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. The center’s future remains uncertain as the agency continues to implement its restructuring plans.
