Lystrup\u2019s resignation comes less than two months after Laurie Leshin stepped down as director of NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.<\/p>\n
![\"Makenzie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/250721-Makenzie-Lystrup-vl-450p-5a8ea0.jpg\")
Makenzie Lystrup, director of NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center, during a panel discussion at the 2024 Artemis Suppliers Conference in Washington, D.C.Joel Kowsky \/ NASA<\/p>\n
The departures are playing out as NASA and other government agencies contend with significant cuts to funding and personnel<\/a>, as part of a broader push to shrink the size of the federal workforce. Questions are swirling internally at NASA and on Capitol Hill <\/a>about how the space agency can accomplish its work with far fewer personnel and why such cuts are moving ahead before Congress has authorized the agency\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, more than 2,000 senior-level employees are set to leave NASA as part of an effort to cut the agency\u2019s workforce, as was first reported by Politico<\/a>. Those include people in senior positions of management and individuals with specialized skills, Politico reported, raising concerns about a \u201cbrain drain\u201d at the space agency.<\/p>\n Workers at the space agency have until Friday to accept \u201cdeferred resignations,\u201d buyouts or early retirement offers.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump\u2019s proposed budget for 2026 would slash about 25%, or more than $6 billion, from NASA\u2019s budget. The steepest cuts would come out of the agency\u2019s space science, Earth science and mission support divisions, according to the budget blueprint<\/a>.<\/p>\n If enacted by Congress, the budget would also phase out NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft<\/a>, which the agency was developing to return astronauts to the moon.<\/p>\n In response to the budget blueprint, more than 280 current and former NASA employees signed a letter to Sean Duffy, NASA\u2019s interim administrator, stating that the Trump administration\u2019s recent policies \u201chave or threaten to waste public resources, compromise human safety, weaken national security, and undermine the core NASA mission.\u201d<\/p>\n