NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory lays off 550 employees

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced Monday that it would cut about 550 jobs, or about 10% of its workforce.

In a statement posted online, lab director Dave Gallagher said the layoffs were part of a broader “realignment of its workforce” and not the result of the government shutdown.

The cuts will affect positions in technical, business and support areas of the NASA center, he said.

“This week’s action, while not easy, is essential to securing JPL’s future by creating a leaner infrastructure, focusing on our core technical capabilities, maintaining budgetary discipline, and positioning us to compete in an evolving space ecosystem – while continuing to accomplish our vital work for NASA and the nation,” he said.

Gallagher added that employees will be informed of their status on Tuesday.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, is a federally funded research and development center run by NASA but managed by the California Institute of Technology. It’s where some of the space agency’s most iconic missions were built, including America’s first satellite, Explorer 1, launched into space in 1958.

JPL scientists also designed, built and operated the five rovers that NASA successfully landed on the surface of Mars.

NASA faces uncertainty about its budget and future priorities. Like most other government agencies, it suffered significant funding and staffing cuts under the Trump administration — part of efforts to shrink the federal workforce.

About 4,000 NASA employees have accepted deferred resignation program offers since President Donald Trump took office, cutting the space agency’s workforce of 18,000 by nearly a fifth.

In July, Reuters reported that about 2,145 high-level NASA employees would leave in the latest round of cuts.

Last week, as the government shutdown persisted, the Trump administration began layoffs of more than 4,000 federal workers in several other departments, including the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Health and Human Services. The cuts do not appear to affect NASA.