'Chaos, confusion and cruelty': NASA employees afraid of losing jobs amid U.S.-China space race

‘Chaos, confusion and cruelty’: NASA employees afraid of losing jobs amid U.S.-China space race

Posted by author February 27, 2025 Jobs

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Though America is locked in a space race with China to reach the lunar surface by 2030, NASA employees are scared for their jobs amid large-scale governmental firings during the opening months of President Donald Trump’s administration, warned Dan Dumbacher, a former NASA deputy associate administrator.

“They are concerned because of the turmoil. And believe me, they are some of the smartest people — I am more than happy to turn over the future to them … And they are actually questioning, ‘What are they going to do for their careers?’ and looking at other opportunities,” Dumbacher said Wednesday during a U.S. House of Representatives hearing.

“Which I think is terribly sad because of the national imperative that we have, and the global competition that we are engaged in,” he said.

Dumbacher spoke as a witness before the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, which conducted a hearing focused on NASA’s Artemis program and the geopolitical threat of Chinese taikonauts attempting to lay claim to regions of the lunar surface. Some Democratic representatives criticized NASA job cutbacks sparked by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, the scope of which remains undetermined.

DOGE is led by SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. Last week, NASA officials announced about 5% of NASA’s workforce of nearly 18,000 employees had accepted deferred resignation offers. The agency also said separations of probationary employees “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,” Cheryl Warner, NASA news chief, said in a statement.

Also on the workplace front, Warner said NASA employees are returning to full-time onsite work by no later than Friday, in compliance with a Jan. 20 executive order.

Trump has nominated Polaris Dawn commander Jared Isaacman to replace Melbourne High graduate Bill Nelson as NASA administrator. Isaacman has yet to be confirmed to the post.

On a larger scale Wednesday, the Trump administration ordered federal agency heads to undertake preparations to initiate large-scale force reductions and develop agency reorganization plans by March 13.

Haridopolos: ‘Failure is not an option’

Beset by delays and cost overruns, NASA’s Artemis program launched its initial, uncrewed demonstration mission in November 2022. Artemis II is scheduled to launch in April 2026 and carry four people — NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — on a flyby trip around the moon.

Artemis III, a crewed mission to the lunar surface, is scheduled for liftoff in mid-2027, also from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Newly elected U.S. Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Indian Harbour Beach, chairs the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee. He opened Wednesday’s hearing by warning that China is racing to reach the moon by 2030, a move that could shape the norms for generations of exploration on the lunar surface.

“This is the most significant moment of America’s space program since the Apollo program. We stand at a crossroads. The world is watching. And our competitors, like communist China, are racing to beat us there,” Haridopolos said.

“We cannot afford to fall behind. This is an opportunity to prove that America still leads the world in exploration and innovation,” he said.

“Failure is not an option,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Valerie Foushee, D-North Carolina, said that while China is laser-focused on sending taikonauts to the moon by 2030, the Trump administration’s executive actions are delivering “chaos, confusion and cruelty” on the federal workforce, including the threat of mass firings.

“I will not sit idly by and let our federal government — including NASA, a national crown jewel — be destroyed. Nor will I stand for handing the keys to lunar exploration to China. Doing so jeopardizes our economic and national security, and our geopolitical influence,” she said.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Foushee noted that the Intuitive Machines-2 lunar lander was positioned on the launch pad on Florida’s Space Coast. Perched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the robotic lander — which is named Athena — lifted off that evening from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The goal: Land about March 6 roughly 100 miles from the moon’s south pole, then collect data for Artemis missions.

Getting back to the moon before China

U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, questioned whether NASA will have the workforce and skills to advance from the moon to Mars after Trump’s “wrecking ball of destructive executive actions” has led to deferred resignations, threats of layoffs and distracted, demoralized employees.

On the other hand, U.S. Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, asked how many years America’s moon program was delayed because of President Barack Obama’s space policies, which he said included cancellations and “distractions about asteroids and Mars.”

Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at at George Washington University, said it cost the U.S. about a decade. Dumbacher said it cost about five years “and then it’s been a matter of how we’ve executed since then.”

U.S. Rep. George Whitesides, D-California, said he wanted to send a message to NASA employees who are scared: “We hear you. We support you.”

“I have been getting many messages from folks who feel under attack. They don’t know if they’re going to get fired after we have a confirmation of the next administrator,” Whitesides said.

“This is not the situation that is conducive to expanding our leadership in human spaceflight,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, chairs the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and his district includes NASA’s Johnson Space Center. He said America’s space program lacked a clear and consistent path until Trump’s 2017 order that instructed NASA to partner with the commercial sector and international community to return humans to the moon, and eventually push toward Mars.

“With the CCP planning to send taikonauts to the moon’s south pole by the end of this decade, the stakes are too high for us to fail. We cannot afford to let them beat us,” Babin said.

“And as I’ve stated many, many times before, one of my greatest concerns is that NASA astronauts will arrive on the lunar surface — only to be greeted by a sign that says ‘No trespassing’ in Mandarin.”

For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.

Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1

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