NASA lays off 530 people due to budget cuts

NASA announced that 530 Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) employees will be laid off due to budget cuts.

Working with the California Institute of Technology and federally funded research and development lab, 2024 funding from Congress financial announced that there was a major budget cut in the 2018 appropriations agreement.

JPL said this week it would lay off about 40 more people who are part of its contractor workforce, calling the staff reductions "painful but necessary adjustments that will ensure NASA stays on budget."

JPL executive Laurie Leshin said in a memo to employees:

“These cuts are among the most difficult we have had to make in recent months as we try to reduce our spending.”

JPL previously included the Sample Return (MSR) project in its funding requests to Congress; This project aims to bring samples from the Red Planet back to Earth to further study their composition.

NASA asks JPL for MSR 300 million in fiscal year 2024dollarHe asked for separation; this was a cut of approximately 63 percent compared to 2023.

JPL is credited with building the first American satellite and designing and remotely operating the Viking spacecraft, the first to land on the surface of Mars.

JPL also launched the Galileo probe, which is set to study Jupiter and its moons.