NASA Appropriations Mark-up Hearing
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
NASA GSFC ETD Is [insert buzzword] Itself
NASA GSFC ETD (Engineering and Technology Directorate) got an email titled “Realignments that will Transition ETD to the Future” There’s lots of NASA doublespeak, agency boilerplate language to make the White House happy, and other needless buzzwords. If you look at the before- and after- org charts, there are more blue boxes now – so that means more complex interactions (instead of fewer?). Wait minute: lots of people are being laid off at GSFC – so shouldn’t there be fewer organizations, managers, (blue boxes with words) etc.? Otherwise, it’S not like anything has really changed – other than mail codes. And of course, the old NASA phrase “it was about time for a new phone book” applies. Oh yes: there is a special bonus fun time activity called “ETD On the Road’. See below for a notional visualization of the realignment changes described above, see below.
Keith’s note: Yesterday the staff at NASA GSFC ETD (Engineering and Technology Directorate) got an email titled “Realignments that will Transition ETD to the Future”. There’s lots of NASA doublespeak, agency boilerplate language to make the White House happy, and other needless buzzwords. As is usually the case, this is a reorganization that seems to be more about giving the impression of a reorganization than actually changing anything. If you look at the before- and after- org charts (wherein they moved the little white colored words inside of the blue boxes) there are more blue boxes now – so that means more complex interactions (instead of fewer?). Wait minute: lots of people are being laid off at GSFC – so shouldn’t there be fewer organizations, managers, (blue boxes with words) etc.? Otherwise, it’s not like anything has really changed – other than mail codes. And of course, the old NASA phrase “it was about time for a new phone book” applies. Oh yes: there is a special bonus fun time activity called “ETD On the Road”. See below.
For over the past year, the directorate has been planning and proposing a series of realignments for engineering. These realignments are necessary to align engineering at Goddard to respond to a changing aerospace market, the NASA portfolio, and the vision put forward within the President’s Budget Request for NASA. In conjunction with the Division Chiefs, we have been working to find opportunities to lean forward and have used multiple activities to help inform what our future state may look like; including “ETD On the Road” visits with industry, capabilities studies, and strategic vision planning.
For awareness, recently NASA Headquarters approved proceeding forward with our realignments that have been in a temporary pause due to NASA’s Hiring Freeze Guidance resulting from OMB/OPM memorandum on the Federal Civilian Hiring Freeze. The following realignments within engineering are in process at the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) for implementation:
Materials Contamination and Coatings (Code 541) (previously 541 and 546)
Mechanical Engineering Systems and Analysis (Code 542) (previously 542 and 543)
Advanced Manufacturing Integration and Test (Code 547) (previously 547, 549, and 568)
Optical, Laser, and Integrated Photonics (Code 551) (previously 551 and 554)
Radiation Effects, Parts, Packaging and Assembly (Code 561) (previously 561 and 562)
Communications Systems (Code 566) (previously 566 and 567)
Autonomous Navigation Electronics and Systems (Code 567) (previously 596)
Software Systems Engineering and Operations (Code 581) (previously 581 and 584)
Flight and Ground Software Systems (Code 582) (previously 582 and 583)
Integrated Data Systems (Code 583) (previously 586 and 587)
Cybersecurity and Software Technologies (Code 584) (previously 585 – name change, see below)
Autonomous Control and Systems Modeling (Code 591) (previously 591 and 597)
Systems Engineering (Code 593) (previously 599 and 592)
Creation of the Wallops Flight Facility Engineering Office (Code 510)
Mechanical Engineering (Code 511) (previously 548)
Electrical Engineering (Code 512) (previously 569)
Systems and Software Engineering (Code 513) (previously 589 and 598)
In addition to these larger moves, we also are:
Renaming Code 585 from the Computing Environments and Collaborative Technologies Branch to the Cybersecurity and Software Technologies Branch (Code 584) – Already stated above
Moving specific engineering functions to align more closely with technical functions:
Orbital Debris Systems Engineers of the Instrument Payload Systems Engineering Branch (592) are realigned into Code 595, Navigation and Mission Design Branch
Mission resilience and Protection (MRPP) Engineers of the Mission Systems Engineering Branch (599) realigned into Code 595
Over the next thirty days, the NSSC will be processing organizational code changes for employees and aligning staff. ETD leadership will be engaging human resources to support organizational effectiveness resources to help employees navigate these changes.
To help visualize the changes, see below for a notional capturing of the realignment changes described above.
ETD will continue to explore opportunities to flatten management layers, combine similar capabilities that will increase our bench strength, reduce overhead costs and promote organizational efficiencies. These efforts will ensure we continue to meet our commitments and streamline costs that impact the Center’s operating budget and direct charges (assessments) to a reduced flight project portfolio.
Please work with your division leadership through this time of transition to align with the structures. It remains critically important to use the realignment changes as opportunities for increasing sharing of resources and collaborating with knowledge exchanges with peers.
Segrid, Maria, and Matt
ETD Leadership Team
“It’s a heist”: Senator calls out Texas for trying to steal shuttle from Smithsonian
“This is not a transfer. It’s a theft,” says Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. The bill was passed by the Senate on July 4. It was meant to be a temporary measure until a permanent solution could be found. The long-term goal is to return the space shuttle to the U.S. Air Force base at Keesler Air Force Base in Texas.
“This is not a transfer. It’s a heist,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) during a budget markup hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee. “A heist by Texas because they lost a competition 12 years ago.”
In April, Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both representing Texas, introduced the “Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act” that called for Discovery to be relocated from the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia and displayed at Space Center Houston. They then inserted a provision into the Senate version of the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which, to comply with Senate rules, was more vaguely worded but was meant to achieve the same goal.
That bill was enacted on July 4, when President Donald Trump signed it into law.
“I am glad to see this pass as part of the Senate’s One Big Beautiful Bill and look forward to welcoming Discovery to Houston and righting this egregious wrong,” Cornyn said in a statement. “Houston has long been the cornerstone of our nation’s human space exploration program, and it’s long overdue for Space City to receive the recognition it deserves by bringing Space Shuttle Discovery home.”
Not enough money
That might have been the end of it, were it not for two concerns raised by Durbin on Thursday.
“In the reconciliation bill, Texas entered $85 million to move the space shuttle from the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia, to Texas. Eighty-five million dollars sounds like a lot of money, but it is not nearly what’s necessary for this to be accomplished,” Durbin said.
Senators push back on Trump’s proposal to cut NASA science funding by 47%
The U.S. Senate appropriations committee voted on a bill that provides NASA’s science programs with $7.3 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. The bill would reject the Trump administration’s budget proposal for the agency, which slashes such funding by 47%. The bipartisan Senate bill initially won by a vote of 15-14. However, primarily due to contention surrounding the location of the FBI headquarters, the bill was ultimately withdrawn and another vote will be conducted during a future meeting. For instance, it also includes support for the National Science Foundation (NSF), asking only cut the agency’s funding by just $60 million — which equates to only about a 0.67% budget decrease. That’s a huge boost compared to what the White House had requested for the NASA agency, and a departure from moves taken by the White house in the last few months, such as a recent abrupt decision to remove over 1,800 NSF staff from its headquarters. The National Weather Service (NWS) also remains “fully funded” under this bill.
The bipartisan Senate bill — worked on by Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) — initially won by a vote of 15-14. However, primarily due to contention surrounding the location of the FBI headquarters, the bill was ultimately withdrawn and another vote will be conducted during a future meeting.
“The bill funds NASA at $24.9 billion, slightly above [fiscal year 2025 levels] to explore the solar system, to advance our understanding of climate change, promote innovation and sustainability in aeronautics,” Sen. Van Hollen said during Thursday’s committee meeting. “We rejected cuts that would have devastated NASA’s science by 47% and would have terminated 55 operating and planned missions.”
Some of those missions that Trump’s 2026 budget proposal put on the chopping block include the Jupiter-orbiting Juno mission, the New Horizons Pluto spacecraft, the DaVinci Venus probe and the OSIRIS-APEX asteroid-sampling spacecraft, to name just a few.
For this reason, many experts in the scientific community have strongly opposed Trump’s budget proposal — which cuts NASA’s overall budget by 24% and calls for about a third of its staff to be let go. The opposition includes all seven former NASA science chiefs, scientists in attendance of this year’s huge American Astronomical Society meeting and bipartisan U.S. Planetary Science Caucus chairs.
“For NASA, the bill reflects an ambitious approach to space exploration, prioritizing the agency’s flagship program Artemis, and rejecting premature terminations of systems like SLS and Orion before commercial replacements are ready,” Sen. Moran said during the meeting.
SLS (which stands for Space Launch System) and Orion are both part of NASA’s Artemis program that aims to return humans to the lunar surface over the next few years — the former refers to the bright orange rocket component of the project, and the latter refers to the white capsule that’ll physically carry astronauts to the moon.
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“We make critical investments to accelerate our plans to land Americans on the lunar surface before the Chinese, but also in the technologies and capacity to land astronauts on Mars,” Sen. Moran said.
NASA’s Artemis Program seeks to return humans to the surface of the moon for the first time since the Apollo program. (Image credit: NASA)
The bill goes beyond NASA as well. For instance, it also includes support for the National Science Foundation (NSF), asking only cut the agency’s funding by just $60 million — which equates to only about a 0.67% budget decrease. That’s a huge boost compared to what Trump requested for the agency, and a departure from moves taken by the White House, such as a recent abrupt decision to remove over 1,800 NSF staff from the agency’s headquarters.
“The bill provides $9 billion for the National Science Foundation, sparing it from the proposed 57% cut advanced in the President’s budget request,” Sen. Van Hollen said. “This bill protects key science missions that are fundamental to furthering our understanding of the Earth and [making us] better stewards of our natural resources, and supports critical programs … to safeguard the Earth from natural disasters.”
The National Weather Service (NWS) also remains “fully funded” under this bill for the purposes of “employing the people who work at the National Weather Service to protect our well being,” Sen. Moran said.
“This bill is a blueprint on how to govern in a constrained fiscal environment,” he said. It provides this blueprint, he added, “by making smart strategic choices, cutting where we can, investing where we must, and always staying focused on trying to deliver value to the American people.”
The bill also offers support for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which has already seen quite a few cuts over the last few months, including over 800 worker layoffs and possible building closures.
“We maintain the current, next-generation satellites that track severe weather, promote and support American businesses and exports and spur economic development nationwide,” Van Hollen said. Such work, he added, also helps to “create cybersecurity and AI standards, promote economic development nationwide and enable sustainable management of ocean resources, conduct periodic censuses …. and much more.”
Passage of the Senate bill — if it does indeed hold — is far from the end of the story, however. To take effect, budget bills must pass both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and then be signed by the president. There’s certainly no guarantee that agreement will come easily in this case.
Trump names Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as interim NASA administrator
President Trump named Sean Duffy as NASA’s interim administrator. Duffy is replacing Janet Petro, the former Director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The move comes a little more than a month after the President withdrew his nomination of Jared Isaacman for NASA Administrator. Duffy’s nomination comes amid reports that more than 2,000 senior staff are expected to leave the agency in the face of budget cuts and staffing reductions in space and air traffic control.. The announcement came on the eve of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s scheduled markup of the White House’s bill that allocates funds to NASA. The bill proposes a nearly 25% cut to the agency’s overall budget, and decimates funding for current and future science missions by almost 50%.”Honored to accept this mission,” Duffy posted on X in response to Trump’s announcement, adding, “Time to take over space. Let’s launch.”. The President’s announcement was posted on the President’s Truth Social platform on July 9, and credits Duffy for doing a “TREMENDOUS job” in his role as transportation secretary.
The announcement, posted on the President’s Truth Social platform on July 9, credits Duffy for doing a “TREMENDOUS job” in his role as transportation secretary, which it seems he will maintain as he also oversees the space agency. The appointment came on the eve of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s scheduled markup of the White House’s bill that allocates funds to NASA, which proposes a nearly 25% cut to the agency’s overall budget, and decimates funding for current and future science missions by almost 50%.
“Honored to accept this mission,” Duffy posted on X in response to Trump’s announcement, adding, “Time to take over space. Let’s launch.” Duffy is replacing Janet Petro, the former Director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center who has served as acting administrator since Trump’s inauguration in January.
🚀 Honored to accept this mission. Time to take over space. Let’s launch. 🇺🇸🛰️ pic.twitter.com/ZBoEgPnwz4July 10, 2025
The move comes a little more than a month after the President withdrew his nomination of Jared Isaacman for NASA Administrator, which was largely viewed as retaliation over Trump’s ongoing public feud with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Isaacman faced little opposition through his various nomination hearings, and was generally viewed as a promising choice to lead the space agency, though questions about his relationship with Musk fueled criticisms of his nomination.
Isaacman, the billionaire tech entrepreneur who founded Shift4 Payments, has funded two privately-crewed missions to Earth orbit with SpaceX, creating the appearance of a possible conflict of interest as he prepared to begin his role as NASA Administrator.
He never got that chance, though. And after Trump withdrew his nomination, there has been speculation that the process to find his replacement would leave the space agency without permanent leadership until 2026. Since his dismissal, however, Isaacman has remained remarkably positive in his public statements about his situation, and even praised Duffy’s appointment as a “great move,” in a post on X, adding in a follow-up post that an acting administrator “who can text the President” is a positive step forward for NASA.
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Short of a new nominee, this was a great move. @NASA needs political leadership from someone the President trusts and has confidence in. Wishing @SecDuffy well in this important endeavor–NASA deserves the best🇺🇸July 10, 2025
In her role throughout the ongoing political shuffle, Acting Administrator Petro has been quick to enact changes at NASA in line with the President’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce and in anticipation of the FY2026 budget cuts. Though, while dutifully aligning NASA with the President’s priorities, she voiced readiness for a new administrator to be confirmed. “I think I am the one most looking forward to that I know across the agency,” she said during the Space Foundation’s 40th annual Space Symposium in April.
Now, it seems some of the weight on Petro’s shoulders is being alleviated as Duffy steps into the role.
“He will be a fantastic leader of the ever more important Space Agency, even if only for a short period of time,” Trump said in his Truth Social post.
Duffy is viewed as a Trump loyalist. A former Fox Business show host, he served as a Republican in congress, representing Wisconsin between 2011-2019, and was sworn in as Secretary of Transportation on Jan. 28. He also garnered public attention earlier in life, appearing on MTV’s “The Real World” in 1997, and later in the show “Road Rules: All Stars.”
Over the past six months, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), one of ten federal administrations within the Department of Transportation, has faced a litany of safety challenges, including a deadly mid-air collision over Washington, D.C. in January, staffing shortages and outdated air traffic control infrastructure. In his role as Secretary of Transportation, Duffy has made modernization of the FAA one of his top priorities. Now, he finds himself at the helm of another agency facing significant budget and staffing reductions.
As a Trump insider with no real background in space, it’s possible we may see more decisive action taken within NASA, especially as it pertains to the government’s Deferred Resignation Program for federal employees and the space agency’s Reduction in Force efforts. Duffy’s nomination comes amid reports that more than 2,000 senior leadership staff are expected to leave the agency in the face of those initiatives, according to Politico.
The administration’s budget proposal for NASA shifts the agency’s focus largely toward human exploration of the moon and Mars, while slashing funding for planetary science missions. The current Fiscal Year 2025 concludes at the end of September, after which more NASA employees may find themselves out of a job. Over 40 space missions, ranging from planned and upcoming to actively performing scientific research in space, are on the chopping block, and for those working on those missions, nothing is guaranteed right now beyond Sept. 30.
Source: https://nasawatch.com/congress/nasa-appropriations-mark-up-hearing/