NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab lays off 550 employees  

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is laying off hundreds more employees as the prestigious research and development center moves to create a “leaner infrastructure” and cut costs with a tightened budget. 

JPL announced on Sunday that approximately 550 positions, accounting for about 11% of its total workforce, will be eliminated. The cuts involve staff across technical, business and support divisions.  

Many Santa Clarita Valley residents are employed at JPL. 

JPL Director Dave Gallagher clarified that the layoffs are not related to the ongoing government shutdown, but are instead part of a broader reorganization effort that began in July. 

“This week’s action, while not easy, is essential to securing JPL’s future by creating a leaner infrastructure, focusing on our core technical capabilities, maintaining fiscal discipline, and positioning us to compete in the evolving space ecosystem — all while continuing to deliver on our vital work for NASA and the nation,” he said. 

Managed by the California Institute of Technology for NASA, JPL is perhaps best known for building and operating all five of NASA’s Mars rovers. Two of them are still active: Curiosity, which has been exploring the Martian surface for over 13 years; and Perseverance, which landed in 2021 and is expected to operate for at least 14 years. 

Back on Earth, however, JPL faces mounting financial constraints, with the Sunday announcement marking the third round of layoffs at the institution in two years. 

In February 2024, JPL dismissed 530 employees, about 8% of its staff, after exhausting other cost-reduction measures amid anticipated funding cuts for NASA and especially for the Mars Sample Return program. The ambitious mission aims to retrieve rock, soil, and gas samples collected by Perseverance and return them to Earth for analysis, but it has suffered cost overruns, delays and declining support from Congress. 

A second reduction followed in November 2024, when about 325 employees were laid off in response to an anticipated budget slash for 2025. That round left JPL with about 5,500 employees, which then-Director Laurie Leshin described as “a stable, supportable staffing level.” 

The latest cuts come as the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 “Skinny Budget” seeks to cut excessive spending across all federal agencies. The White House singled out the Mars Sample Return mission as “grossly over budget,” saying that its goals could be met instead through future human missions to Mars—echoing President Donald Trump’s inaugural promise to launch “American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.” 

Overall, the plan would cut NASA’s funding by $6 billion, from $24.8 billion to roughly $18.8 billion. While Congress has not yet approved a final budget, the uncertainty appears to have prompted JPL to act preemptively. 

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., whose district covers Pasadena, home to both Caltech’s flagship campus and JPL, said she was “extremely disappointed and disheartened” by the layoffs. 

“JPL is a national asset that has helped the United States accomplish some of the greatest feats in space and science for decades. Every layoff devastates the highly skilled and uniquely talented workforce that has made these accomplishments possible,” the congresswoman said in a statement. 

Chu, who co-chairs the Congressional Planetary Science Caucus, said the cumulative impact of repeated job cuts could undermine the nation’s leadership in space research. 

“Taken together with last year’s layoffs, this will result in an untold loss of scientific knowledge and expertise that threatens the very future of American leadership in space exploration and scientific discovery,” she said. 

Rep. George Whitesides, D-Agua Dulce, a former NASA chief of staff, issued a prepared statement blaming the Trump administration for the layoffs. 

“This is part of a broader assault on science across the Administration. We should be strengthening national treasures like JPL — not devastating JPL workers and their families with layoffs,” Whitesides’ statement said. “With NASA now forced to scale back key research and exploration programs, we are not only hurting our local L.A. County community, but our national security and global competition.” 

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