Politics & Government

JPL Could Lay Off 250 People

Employees of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory could be victims of NASA budget cuts.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory may lay off up to 250 people, a spokeswoman said Thursday, adding they’re not sure exactly how many cuts or which positions.

Veronica McGregor, media relations manager for JPL, said the agency recently told its employees that due to federal budget cuts, NASA is just as vulnerable as any other company in this bleak economic climate.

Officials for JPL, La Cañada's largest employer,  told employees these layoffs could happen in the coming months.

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“Like everyone else, we’re looking at ways to be prudent,’’ she said, adding no decisions have been made for how many people will be affected, or whether these positions are janitors or physicists.

As for how much money 250 layoffs could save JPL, the leading U.S. center for robotic exploration of the solar system, McGregor said it would depend on the level of the positions.

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According to Spacenews.com,  if Congress adopts spending cuts proposed by the House Appropriations Committee, NASA’s budget would plummet by some $103 million this year. The website noted that NASA, like the rest of the federal government, has been operating since October under a spending measure known as a continuing resolution. For NASA, that means settling for the  $18.724 billion Congress appropriated for 2010.

The variables with the budget, therefore, leave agencies like NASA and JPL wondering which programs can continue, and which will become victims of federal cuts.  

“Missions ramp up in personnel, and ramp down in personnel. There is a typical ebb and flow on a yearly basis,’’ she said, noting she does not know which space programs will be cut, and which could be saved. The ebb and flow is dictated by whether the mission is operating, in the pipeline or completed.

Cassini, for example, has seen a fluctuation in staffing levels. It is into its second extended mission (by comparison the Mars rovers are in their 20th extended mission) and performing fewer flybys, so it doesn’t need the same staffing level as it required during the original mission, McGregor explained.

JPL’s website describes the Cassini mission to Saturn as “the most ambitious effort in planetary space exploration ever mounted.’’ A joint endeavor of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency, the Cassini spacecraft orbits the ringed planet and studies the Saturnian system. Last week it skimmed Saturn’s moon Titan, to teach scientists about the magnetic environment of Titan.

JPL employees just more than 5,000 full-time positions, she said.


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