A fifth of NASA’s civil servant workforce has left the agency over the past year through deferred retirement programs, and the consequences are beginning to ripple across the agency’s major science and exploration programs.
A Government Accountability Office report released July 23 found that 25 of 36 major NASA projects have been affected by the departures, which have hit every NASA center across the country. Some programs are formally considering adding workforce shortages to their risk registers.
Uneven Losses, Widespread Pain
The hardest-hit center was Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, which lost 34% of its civil servants. NASA Headquarters fared best with an 11% reduction, while other centers saw losses ranging from 16% to 28%.
The GAO report warned that the departures have left “NASA’s workforce out of balance with NASA’s programmatic needs.” Some centers, it said, “may be challenged to meet the workforce needs of the mission directorates.”
The Orion program lost 10% of its civil servant staff and reported challenges filling several key positions. The Space Launch System lost nearly 20%, prompting program managers to consider adding workforce shortfalls as a formal project risk.
The DAVINCI Venus mission, already under threat of cancellation in the FY2026 budget request, lost key personnel and could not immediately replace them, forcing revisions to risk-reduction activities. While Congress ultimately funded DAVINCI in its final FY2026 appropriations, the mission faces renewed cancellation risk in the FY2027 budget request.
Financial and Schedule Impact
Despite the staffing shortfalls, schedule performance has held up better than might be expected. Only two programs suffered schedule slips, each of just one month. The IMAP space science mission actually launched three months early.
Net cost overruns, however, reached $478.2 million, concentrated in SLS Block 1B and Orion. The GAO noted that the full impact of the workforce reductions may not yet be visible, since departures were gradual through January 2026.
“This is a remarkably honest assessment of the damage being done to NASA’s workforce,” said Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, in a social media post reacting to the report.
Skill Gaps and Future Risks
NASA’s Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer identified critical skill gaps across aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, information technology, and cybersecurity.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced in February a plan to convert some contractor roles to civil servant positions and launched a “NASA Force” program in partnership with the Office of Personnel Management to bring in temporary technical talent. However, as of July, NASA officials have not publicly updated on the progress of these efforts.
The GAO report also warned that the FY2027 budget request, which proposes major cuts, could lead to further workforce reductions if Congress does not override it. A House bill would restore higher funding levels, but the Senate has not yet advanced its own version.
“The civil servant departures have left NASA’s workforce out of balance with NASA’s programmatic needs,” the GAO concluded.