Keith’s note: The House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee held a hearing, on NASA’s plans today. NASA decided not to participate. Some excerpts with highlights:

• “I wish that NASA Had agreed to testify today so I could ask them directly” – Rep. Valerie Foushee, (D-NC) ranking member of the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee.
• “India put an aircraft on the far side of the Moon for less than $100 million.” – Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA)
• “To the NASA workforce: We hear you, we support you. People are scared. We have strong interest in a work force that is supported and can conduct its mission and is not running scared. This is not a condition that is supportive of an expansion of our leadership” – Rep. George Whitesides (D-CA) – former NASA Chief of staff

Keith’s note: My bullshit meter has pegged again. Last week NASAWatch’s Facebook page suddenly disappeared after 20 yrs. Now someone is screwing around with NASAWatch’s webserver. I came out of retirement to run this damn thing again. I’m on a fixed income & can’t wait for this month’s large server bill. If this keeps happening then the whole NASAWatch party is gonna be turned off – forever and I’ll resume hiking with my wife. So, if I stop updating for a while …

Keith’s note: Elon Musk said tonight on Twitter “Subject to the discretion of the President, they will be given another chance. Failure to respond a second time will result in termination.” Meanwhile there is unease about the first and possibly a second letter – as can be seen in this note sent to all HHS employees. The official guidance urges detailed caution as what to omit from any voluntary response to OPM – and a final note that respondents should “Assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors and tailor your response accordingly.”

Keith’s note: According to a variety of emails and postings and TV stories OPM has told everyone that any response to the Saturday OPM memo is “voluntary” and that no one is at risk of being fired for not responding.

Keith’s note: A summary of latest NASA guidance on Monday morning regarding Saturday OPM memo:

• There will be a NASA meeting with OPM at 1pm
• If you replied already – all good.
• After the 1pm OPM meeting, the agency may decide to submit one overall response on behalf of all employees or may recommend that we each submit our own individual response.
• staff asked to put 5 bullets that represent your work from last week now, in case the direction is for each of us to submit individually.
• Do not submit your bullets to OPM if you have not already done so and wait for the additional guidance that will come this afternoon.

Update: NASA Names Stephen Koerner as Acting Director of Johnson Space Center It is with great pride and anticipation that I announce the appointment of several exceptional leaders to key positions at NASA.

Keith’s note: There are ~2 million Federal Government employees. This means that [email protected] will get 2 million replies within a very, very short period of time. 20+ questions below:

Keith’s note: Have a nice weekend. Update: sources report that NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Casey Swails has sent out a memo that is making its way through the agency – about the OPM mass email that everyone got on saturday. She’s asking folks to pause in terms of dealing with that and that she and her team will add further information for everyone on Monday.

Keith’s note: The NASAWatch page on Facebook has been restored after several unsuccessful appeals made by me to Meta. It was deleted (apparently – and I am guessing) because I was impersonating NASA. It took them 20 years to notice. Thanks to the exposure given by the Houston Chronicle to this deletion, a NASAWatch reader with a connection to META saw that this deletion had happened and the NASAWatch page on Facebook has been restored. Many thanks to both of you!

“About 5% of NASA’s workforce accepted the resignation offer, and we are supporting their transition to administrative leave. Many will start that leave this week, while a few will continue to wrap up their duties in the coming weeks. Additionally, per the email from the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer on Jan. 29, the agency expects all employees to report full-time in-person to a NASA center or facility by Feb. 28. I have approved some time-limited exceptions to the in-person requirement; employees with approved exceptions will receive further details from their leadership.” Full memo below

Washington, DC – Today, Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (CA-18), Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Ranking Member Valerie Foushee (NC-4), and Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight Ranking Member Emilia Sykes (OH-13) sent a letter to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) further investigating DOGE’s potential to inflict harm on the agency and its mission.

Keith’s note: whatever legal restraint might have been imposed on the Trump Administration’s mass firing spree has evaporated. Let the firings commence.

• Judge rejects unions’ request to pause Trump administration firings, Washington Post: “U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, ruled against the National Treasury Employees Union and four other labor organizations that requested a temporary halt to the mass firings. More than half a million federal workers could lose their jobs through the Trump administration’s firings and a separate program of deferred resignations, or buyouts, the unions said in legal filings.”
• Lawsuit

Keith’s note: Probation firings at NASA are on pause – but only temporarily. Some sort of suspense date on an action related to this that involves some sort of email notification is still being carried internally with a 21 February due date (see Coming Personnel Actions At NASA). The enhanced, closely-monitored performance mentioned by NASA PAO today of employees is indeed underway – but it is somewhat pointless since everyone at NASA has good performance ratings already. The “pass/fail” part of performance ratings is apparently being discontinued. So … this enhanced review starts with everyone having a gold star. Yay Team. The probationary numbers that OPM has from NASA are not yet complete. 959 names are involved – but only half of them are in work – while the other half are still being completed for submission. Meanwhile, if you are among this number of probationary employees who are over 40 years old, then you apparently get another 30 days to think this over before submitting your paperwork. As always, your mileage may vary, contents may settle during shipping, and this is no way to explore the universe.

Keith’s note: More words from NASA PAO decidedly non-NASA in style: “About 5% of NASA’s workforce accepted the resignation offer in the Deferred Resignation Program. A small subset of that group was probationary employees and will be allowed to enter into the Deferred Resignation Program. After working with OPM and a careful evaluation of our workforce and mission requirements, probationary separations will be performance-based or voluntary in accordance with agency policy. The agency will continue to monitor all employee performances and take swift action as appropriate with any issues, ensuring American citizens have an excellent and efficient workforce at NASA.”

Keith’s note: You folks probably already know this but it bears repeating: more bad news is arriving. NASA managers have to implement orders from the White House and these orders suck big time. No deviation is allowed. These NASA managers are worried sick about this and are trying to protect y’all. But sooner or later it will come to them refusing to carry out orders – and they will be gone too. Speaking as a former NASA employee myself – a child of the Apollo era – the worst outcome would be for all of you – all of us – to forget why we wanted to work for NASA and why it is voted the most popular place in government to work year after year. Y’all made it that special place. No other agency is charted to explore the universe. Not even close. And the people who accept that challenge are what made America the leader in space exploration. You have touched the sun, visited every planet, and now sail across interstellar space. Never forget that. Ad Astra – Keith

Keith’s note: Multiple sources report that some DOGE reps were at NASA Goddard today. They got tours including Roman Space Telescope. UPDATE: sources at GSFC tell me that the individuals at Goddard today were not DOGE, per se. One was from NSpC (National Space Council), one was an advisor to Jared Isaacman, and the last was from Janet Petro’s staff. They toured Roman Space Telescope with Makenzie Lystrup and Mark Clampin. BUT there was internal email circulating at GSFC today stating that DOGE was there for a site visit and included instructions to staff to cooperate – as “mandated by Executive Order.”

Keith’s note: some sage advice from a reader: “I’ve been telling everyone at NASA and elsewhere, download all your personnel records, SF-50s; get all your appraisals and download those; go to any other places like employee express (for NASA and some other agencies) and make sure you download all your Leave and Earnings statements. Also, offload and save any emails that have to do with good performance and anything that you can use later. Once you’re out, you won’t have access to any of these things.” Update from GRC: a Directorate level supervisor said the OCIO said “eOPF downloads are being monitored – do not to save it to your agency computer.” Employees were told instead to print it out and were told that NASA will be doing searches on computers.

Keith’s note: Nothing personal against Jim Free but isn’t it odd that he gets to retire smoothly and WH/DOGE allows a personal press release – yet all the NASA people who have been – or will soon be fired – will simply vanish with no mention? Otherwise, thanks for your service Jim (seriously). You are getting out at the right time. Or … were you pushed out? “NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free to Retire After 30 Years Service“

Keith’s note: Update from NASA GRC: “DOGE has come to NASA Glenn. One contractor has been confirmed fired by DOGE. We’re scouring our WiFi and government computers and software for information. We’ve been instructed to answer DOGE employees with only “Yes”, “No”, or to refer them to our division chief. Everyone here is on the edge of their seat with terror and anxiety as you could imagine.”

Keith’s note: NASA PAO sent out a statement with more words than yesterday to talk about the probationary employee terminations – but they still do not have words to describe the impact of these firings: “NASA continues to work as quickly as possible to comply with the guidance and direction provided by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for the Deferred Resignation Program and probationary employees. The agency is in the process of validating hundreds of employees who responded to the deferred resignation offer before the deadline. Some probationary employees have taken the deferred resignation offer and those individuals have been, or will be, on administrative leave by the end of this week. NASA is working with OPM on exemptions for those in the probationary period in mission critical functions.”