More than 150 NASA Glenn jobs in jeopardy, Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s office says, Cleveland Plain Dealer
“NASA Glenn Research Center stands to lose more than 150 jobs when automatic spending cuts under the “sequester” go into effect, according to the office of Toledo Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur. National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials told Kaptur the cuts would end cryogenic propulsion research headquartered at Glenn, resulting in the loss of 10 to 15 jobs. A separate $14.5 million sequester-related cut in Glenn’s operational budget will cost another 150 support staff jobs, said Kaptur spokesman Steve Fought. “It appears to be a very difficult fiscal environment for NASA Glenn,” said Fought.”
Sequestration 2013: Hoyer Says NASA Goddard Could See Layoffs, Greenbelt Patch
“While, thankfully, it appears that NASA Goddard Space Flight Center may not be as severely affected as some other NASA centers, we are still likely to see local businesses that contract with NASA and with the military, like many of you here today, take a significant hit,” Hoyer said at a luncheon hosted by the Maryland Space Business Roundtable in Greenbelt.”

Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member...

14 replies on “Layoffs at GRC and GSFC?”

  1. Not to make too fine a point of it, but are any civil servants at risk of a RIF, or are these all contractor positions?

  2. These are contractor jobs. But is doesn’t matter. GRC leadership doesn’t distinguish between contractor and civil service as for its importance. It’s a true shame that NASA’s budget is beholden to fools in the south that keep pushing retreads of big rockets proposed in the 1960s and 1970s. That is the only reason that SLS and other big pork money drains keep NASA anemic. 

  3. You have a better chance of meeting Bigfoot or an space Alien than seeing a civil servant at GRC get laid off and even more remote to see one get fired.

    Funny, It wasn’t just 6 months ago that I remember center managers and contractor managers boasting that the cryogenic propellant and storage was the safest program on the lab. 

    Contractors are the sacrificial lambs—too bad they carry most of the weight of GRC.

    1. SpaceTech, you expendable little pissant.  Why are you such a hater.  Why are you so jealsous of the CS’s?  If the government was working properly, you and all NASA employees shoudl be Cs’s.  You work for a PROFIT, we just work to get the job done.  You could become a CS, but I’m sure you wouldn’t want the pay cut, or have to put p with the people like yourself.  Now go cry somewhere else.

        2. No Sarcasm my friend, just truth.  The majority of Contractors and Civil Servants play well in the sandbox here.  It is a only a few of you that just can’t get along.
          It is you who does not see the world correctly.  Unfortunatley Keith’s great forum is occasionally taken over by disgruntled contractors, while most of us CS’s just sit and watch you rant how bad you got it.  Do me a foavor, investigate your contract, see how much is paid.  I never heard of a CS manger, let alone even Director becoming a millionaire with Government funding.  Talkto your company, not the Feds for screwing you out of having a pendsion, and just poutting some money in a gambling scheme called a 401k.   Truthfully, I really do wish you and all the contractors were Civil Servants.  Then, we could actually put a man on the moon again and maybe Mars.

          1. No Sarcasm my friend, just truth.

            Wow.  You ARE serious.

            Have you thought about seeing a counselor for your anger and jealousy issues?

          2. Sorry Gonzo, no jealousy or anger issuse.  I just wont sit back and be bashed by a contractors misplaced anger and jealousy.  I believe NASA Watch was to talk about NASA issues, not cry about other employees benefits.  You don’t like what you got?  Go talk to YOUR employer, don’t cry about me or my employer.

          3. One quick note.  I was being sarcastic when I called SpaceTech a expendable little pissant.  Probably a valuable employee.  Just a little misguided on where to point his frustration.

    2. The cryogenic depot architecture saves NASA $57B over SLS/HLV for the same mission set over 20 years.

      Not only is the technology critical, it saves billions, but much of the depot work is unfunded.

      Yet,  Congress funds the “backup” LVs and capsules to the tune of 2.5B/year
      and the rest of the primary LEO COTS at ~20% of this level.  Insane.

      Propellant transfer and storage is directed towards HLV to reduce boiloff of refueling stages–the HLV architecture, not depots.

      NASA managers are on public record stating that NASA requires a HLV and not cryogenic depots despite 10s of billions of dollars in savings–you see the logic right?

      If you have no missions, no lander, rely on ESA for a transfer stage because of a rocket that costs too much to afford payloads, the thinking must be that you do not need to reduce boiloff at all–you see the logic right?

      NASA management therefore, at any level, has no say in the future of the
      agency and does not take cost into consideration, so it would be difficult to trust any predictions
      about the safest programs–you see the logic right?

      Per RIFs, they occurred in the 70s, and were prohibited by Congress until the end of FY13.  by why direct RIFS at critical technology rather than non-critical–you see the logic right?

      1. muomega0.
        While I don’t dispute your reasoning, I think the situation can be evaluated much more simply — SLS contributes to no stated purposes except: 1) alleged BEO missions with Orion, but here are no such missions, no funding for them, and none of the rest of the hardware required for BEO missions exists or is planned; and 2) as a back-up for commercial services to ISS, which is using a sledge hammer for a fly swatter (a very expensive fly swatter), and isn’t needed anyhow.

        Cryogenic propulsion research, on the other hand, has the potential (and in some cases is necessary) to enhance just about every sensible thing we should be doing in space over the next century or so, at least.

        Looked at this way, I can’t imagine what nonsense is going on in the heads of the decision makers.  I can see but one possibility — this is yet another bone thrown to ATK to try and keep their LV SRB production alive for use on SLS (and whatever else the pork distributors can screw up).

  5. Sorry, but you are mistaken. Not only are the big subcontractor companies laying off, they have announced there will be three more. The first one takes its toll 9/30. The next one will be hit 2/28. Then by next 9/30 the remaining staff will be slashed by the remaining number to make the total of this layoff set a 50% workforce reduction. And that’s just at JSC.
    Managers, those approaching retirement, those working legacy systems, those not pulling their weight made up the “attrition” portion of this slice and dice. Houston had heavy cuts already. BO hates Texas and Boldon hasn’t been friendly to anyone here. I with the astronauts would boot him from their “fraternity” to make the point not to bite the hands that kept you alive as you floated above the earth. And Schumer won’t be happy until he strips Texas of everything he can.
    Buckle up guys…it’s about to get even rougher.

Comments are closed.