NASA changes

NASA has over 18,000 civil serpents.
That's - what?

A 9% cut?

What's the normal churn rate?
What is the pay for a senior GS-14?

 

GS-14 pay:

www.generalschedule.org/GS-14

Churn rate not easy to find, but employee satisfaction was quite high ,find this online:

2023-fevs-aes-web-report-final-draft

Quote below from

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/nasa-begins-push-to-slash-workforce-with-more-staff-buyouts-early-retirements-as-budget-cuts-loom

“The efforts — which include a deferred resignation program, voluntary early retirement authority and voluntary separation incentive program — come on the heels of large proposed budget cuts for NASA in 2026 by the Trump administration. Those cuts aim to reduce NASA's overall budget by 24% and its workforce from its current 17,391 employees down to 11,853, a 32% reduction. The budget request is still under review by Congress and not yet implemented.”

This is the intended flight plan and may not be fully implemented.

Bob is concerned with some R&D aspects - fair enough. It is also of concern that entire research areas in Earth Science are being dismantled. Even to the extent of ending data flows from Earth observing satellites already on station.

 

I shall misuse Bob's thread here as he is unlikely to report me

While 9% does not sound too terribly bad as a US science funding contraction. Other percents ought not be ignored. Here are two from

https://www.science.org/content/article/it-s-nightmare-u-s-funding-cuts-threaten-academic-science-jobs-all-levels

“... the federal government has paused or terminated billions of dollars of grants, proposed slashing research funding by more than 40% for key research agencies in the next fiscal year…”

“Numbers released in May by the National Science Foundation (NSF) indicate that if Congress approves the cuts to the agency proposed by the White House, the number of early-career researchers it supports could fall by 78%—from 95,700 undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs during this fiscal year to 21,400 in 2026.”

If small percentages can assuage, then large ones will have the opposite effect.

 

Shame you don't live, work or...vote...in the US.

 

SO....
$cience is NA$A and NA$A is $cience?????
GOOD!
Maybe we can cut funding in some other 'areas.'

Mass to orbit seems to have been sort of a 'thing' for NASA 'once upon a time.'
HOW are they doing in this metric NOW?
WHO does that NOW?
HOW many 'greybeards' do we need?
HOW many interns?

Perhaps......JUST perhaps NASA can shed some weight and maybe LOOK UP what N.A.S.A. is supposed to STAND FOR in the first place!

Disclosures:
I have an active NASA facility access badge as a contractor even though I am decidedly NOT a contractor!
....and in a dark and murky past I have worked in a NASA facility as a DoD contractor....only the work was not as clean nor as well respected by the client were I to work in a 'slightly' different and MUCH older .....um....'profession.'
SO I fully accept the fact that MY experience may not be as "objective" as the average reader.

TIFWIW....

 

That depends on the definition of "superior past performance" Deep state performance NEEDS to be rooted out, for instance. Why is that crazy Boing project still being funded after all these years and lack of results?

 

This hinges on the now subjective definition of key research and key research agencies. Most government funded agencies are anything but efficient in producing results. They excel at spending taxpayer funds.

 

The Office closures look reasonable since Technology should not be mixed with politics.

 

"A former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency says that during his short time embedded within the Department of Veterans Affairs, he did not find the levels of waste, fraud and abuse that he had expected and was "pretty surprised, actually, at how efficient the government was.""
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/02/nx-s1-5417994/former-doge-engineer-shares-his-experience-working-for-the-cost-cutting-unit

Former employee cause he actually spoke the truth. Most of the government does its best to get the most use out of the money Congress gives to them. Don't care for the amount or what it is spent on, then get Congress to change it. It is their power to set the amount of money spent and where it is spent. Not the President's.


Any major misuse of government funds is happening at the Department of Defense. They've failed something like 7 audits. Yet it was the one place DOGE wasn't allowed to go poking around.

Can't say what that office did, but government spending money on science and technology is the reason for many goods being available for consumers today. The space race lead to advances in light weight materials. USDA labs gave us dried potatoes, lactaid, and frozen concentrated orange juice. They also work on improving food safety, alternative fuels, and new uses for ag products and wastes.

The private sector spends very little on basic research. They rely on government and academic(which gets a lot of funding from government) to develop an idea, and will then take that to market. Without the basic research generating new ideas, you will run out of things to develop into products.

 

did they ever discover the 150 year olds collecting social security benefits?

 

"The Office closures look reasonable since Technology should not be mixed with politics."

I cannot dispute this but it may be beside the point. Science and technology absolutely need to be mixed with governance.

Governance failing to make use of science and technology was a topic of a Carl Sagan interview by Charlie Rose that I just now had the please of seeing and hearing.

Any government could fail greatly in the way. Flag notwithstanding.

 

Who's providing most of the bottle rockets now?

 

Interestingly enough, they corrected the data and actually saved some money. I think at least one individual was over 300 years old.

 

I assume you mean the biblical Lazarus who was raised from the dead and died again later.