Nearly 4,000 NASA employees are leaving under a Trump-era deferred resignation program, reducing the agency’s workforce by 20% amid growing concerns over budget cuts.

They’re attacking the future of NASA science activities with this proposed 47 percent budget cut.” That candid evaluation by Casey Dreier, director of space policy at The Planetary Society, sums up the trepidation coursing through the US space agency as it prepares for a flood of voluntary retirements.

NASA’s course reversal on firing about 1,000 probationary employees in February was hailed as a victory for those opposing cuts to the space agency’s civil workforce, which in January comprised more than 18,000 personnel. According to the latest update, however, NASA could be 20 percent smaller by January 2026.

NASA has lost about 500 people via normal attrition as well since Trump took office in January. Counting those losses, NASA's workforce will shrink to about 14,000 by Jan. 9, 2026, when the employees who said yes during the DRP's second phase will come off the rolls, Warner said in the statement.

President Donald Trump recommended Congress cut funding to NASA’s Katherine Johnson Independent Verification & Validation Facility in Fairmont by two thirds. NASA’s 2026 discretionary budget request takes the IV&V facility’s budget from $43 million to $13 million.

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Makenzie Lystrup to step down on August 1 as Trump administration proposes 25% cut to NASA's overall budget, affecting agency's science division - Anadolu Ajansı

At least 2,145 senior-ranking NASA employees are set to leave under a push to shed staff, according to documents obtained by POLITICO — potentially spelling trouble for White House space policy and depriving the agency of decades of experience.

NASA’s workforce is undergoing one of its largest reductions in decades, with nearly 4,000 employees choosing to resign through a deferred departure program backed by the Trump administration.