The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA’s federally funded research and development center operated by the California Institute of Technology, announced Monday that it will be laying off “approximately 550 of our colleagues across technical, business, and support areas.” That’s around 10% of the center’s entire workforce. This follows layoffs in November 2024, which followed layoffs in February 2024, which followed layoffs in January 2024.
It’s a sad state of affairs for JPL, which is responsible for the Curiosity Mars rover program and 39 other active missions. Per Space News, the initial round of layoffs began over budget uncertainties as Congress fought over spending; given the fact that Congress has no budget at all at the moment, the situation hasn’t exactly improved. Still, JPL Director Dave Gallagher said in the announcement that Monday’s news was the culmination of a months-long effort to reorganize the center, not a response to the shutdown.
“Reorg” is often associated with other terms, such as restructure, realignment, reduction, leaner, “grateful for the contributions of our departing colleagues” … and, yup, they’re all in there. That sounds like Gallagher is trying to fundamentally shift how JPL operates, rather than just trim headcount at the margins. Indeed, CNBC reports that a new org structure will take effect on Wednesday. What that means, no one knows yet. In fact, though the layoffs have been announced, employees were not to even learn if they’re being shown the door until Tuesday. Rough night.
Every planet and the Sun
Though JPL is funded and sponsored by NASA, as a federally funded research and development center it’s managed and operated by Caltech. This means the affected employees all work for the university, not the federal government. That makes these decisions technically a private-sector matter, not subject to the government’s employee protections. However, since NASA signs the checks, how the agency spends its money determines how JPL can actually function. Gallagher doesn’t seem to foresee large investments anytime soon, so he’s turning the center into a smaller outfit out of necessity for the long term.
It’s a shame, since JPL is such a hero in America’s journey through space. Explorer I, America’s first satellite, back in 1958? That was JPL. Voyager I, the first manmade object to leave the solar system and the photographer of the famous “pale blue dot” image of Earth? A JPL mission, though its days are numbered. While its employees all work in Pasadena, California, they’ve also been to every single planet in the solar system, plus the Sun for good measure. They also run a lot of satellites studying the Earth and its weather. It’s an amazing group. It’ll just be a little bit smaller on Wednesday.
(And if you didn’t know: one of JPL’s founders, Jack Parsons, was a sex-wizard protégé of Aleister Crowley. If anything, that place should be under threat from eldritch horrors, not something as banal as budget cuts.)
