Shrinking The NASA Office Of Communications
Keith’s note: NASA Sources report that OCOMM – NASA Office of Communications – employees are saying that at least 60% of their staff need to take advantage of a NASA Deferred Resignation Program (DRP), Voluntary Early Retirement (VERA), and/or Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP) to leave the agency and do so by the deadline. Otherwise there is going to be an involuntary RIF beginning in August. NASA is moving ahead with implementing the implications of the White House FY 2026 NASA Budget Request (detail below) even before Congress has a chance to take up the budget. All positions at field centers are being eliminated and NASA HQ will go from 39.9 to 33.8 FTE overall the agency will go from 76.2 FTE to 33.8 FTE. (FTE Chart below). Even though this would seem like jumping the shark (no budget in place) the folks running NASA have been told that organizational changes and efficiency actions such as this are simply following various Executive Order directives and would be happening anyway regardless of where the FY 2026 budget lands.
16 responses to “Shrinking The NASA Office Of Communications”
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Janet Yes-Bro: fully embraces the challenge, then folds like a lawn chair.
Janet is not folding. She is complicit. She is not fighting for us, she is ok with this. I think many in leadership are also ok with this.
I suspect this is Musk’s idea and that he got the idea from a former NASA manager now working for Space X. The manager’s philosophy was that ALL NASA dollars should go to the technical work and zero to ‘spurious other activities’ that didn’t ‘contribute’, like scientific research, education, communications, etc. He gave lots of dollars to contractors (many of whom were former NASA managers) who needlessly wasted the money. That is why Orion, SLS, ISS, costs have skyrocketed. He got the money from cancelling functions like academic grants, history, public affairs.
Fair. I still assume integrity is present as a baseline. Adjusting to the new normal of sycophants and enablers.
I’ve heard management is obligated to follow directed policy. Example if it is recommended to close a particular Center, then that Center Director has to agree it is a good idea. But the federal employees union at the Center can object.
The budgets at the levels the President, Senate or Congress deal with them do not generally get into the level below ‘program’. Only in rare instances do they edict X amount must be spent for a specific purpose. So SLS and Orion will get their $billions. Whether they go to Boeing, Lockheed, or to a support function like ‘communications’ is a decision by the program management.
So this is for the central Office of Comm. But every program puts a % of their budget into communications too. Do I guess all of that stays in place? They would have been better off to put it all into a central communications office and then actually produce something.
“Eliminate functions not statutorily mandated”: The original NASA ACT, approved by Congress, has been in place for 67 years. The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 mandates that NASA “provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof”. This means NASA is legally required to share information about its work with the public.
I’m not seeing an issue then. The Office of Communications will remain at HQ. There isn’t a need for all field centers to report to the public.
This may seem like a small matter with everything else going on but PLEASE DO NOT DELETE THE SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS – they are “old growth” accounts that were created at the dawn of the era of social media, and it will be impossible for them to ever get to that level of reach if deleted & recreated. Find a way to deactivate them instead – make them private or whatever
OCOMM is not the only organization acting preemptively. NASA is going to have a real problem if FY26 ends up being something close to FY26 enacted budget. Direction across the board from senior leadership is to proceed as if the President’s budget request is law. It’s crazy.
Ironic that after decades of criticizing NASA’s promotional acumen, there is no real NASAWatch editorializing about this expected Communications cutback. But it is kind of surprising that out of the big picture IT budget, this portion of NASA communications has been “only” 76 FTEs. 76 FTEs that are essentially reviewers of press releases, publications, web content, etc., e.g. whatever is “approved” for “release” to the public.
You might actually read all the posts on NASAWatch. Just sayin’ Like this one “Embracing The Challenge Of Outreach At NASA. Or Not.” https://nasawatch.com/exploration/embracing-the-challenge-of-outreach-at-nasa-or-not/
I saw it, but that was your follow on to the initial article, and posted after my initial comment.
That said, I’ve never understood NASA’s challenges at self-promotion. Not convinced I need to elaborate on my impression of seventy-six FTEs employed as public information reviewers. 76???
Given all of the feedback by Keith on NASAs abysmal public outreach, will anyone even notice if OCOMM is substantially reduced?
Did you read what I wrote?