Inventing a program that will bring a piece of mars back to earth in NASA’s Jet Propulsotory Jet Propulsotory – California Lab that pioneered American roletry and scientific testing of our orbit.
While working on a mechanical engineering degree, he watched a JPL launch and was exposed to images of the lab taking photos of Mars. He went to the jpl open house, which felt like “Disneyland.” He has applied to work at jpl more than 60 times. When he finally got a job working on the Mars Sample Mission, he hoped to spend the rest of his career there.
But on Tuesday, he was one of 550 employees at the lab laid off — representing more than 10% of the workforce.
It was the fourth round of the lab’s two-year run, which has been scuttled since Congress pulled funding for its Mars Return sample because of a ballooning budget and timeline.
Morale has tanked amid reports of management problems. Workers say they follow budget discussions on national issues while hearing little from lab leaders.
“It’s always been this terrifying prospect,” said the illegal developer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share his first-hand views. “The boot was raised again to cling to us, but we didn’t know when it would come down.”
Because of this, an institution with a history of vision to solve the most difficult problems in space is now facing a daunting task here on Earth: Reclaiming its place at the Vanguard of exploration and innovation.
“People forget how much jpt is known around the world,” said Fraser MacDonald, senior lecturer in historical geography at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and author of the book. “Escape from Earth,” About the founders of JPL. For MacDonald, the lab is “a major science and technology anchor in southern California.”
jpl – operated by Caltech in La Cañada Flintridge and funded primarily through NASA – was born in the 1940s, after Caltech Rocket scientists tested it and caught the eye of the US military.
Many legends of their first efforts – including the 1936 test that ended with a line of oxygen catching fire, creating, in fact, a burning flame – have now been told in hyperbole, MacDonald. It doesn’t matter, they created a “Californian story in California,” he said, which helped search the world.
After World War II, jpl was organized mostly in the military rock, as the US instead focused on the secret shadow to bring Nazi scientists around the country. But when the cold war considered the US to seek technological dominance in the world and beyond, it was jpl that developed the satellite of the US ‘, tested 1, designed to study cosmic rays.
In the same year, 1958, the US government created NASA, and JPL found a new home.
NASA’s ambitious, high-profile delivery contracts have been for the life of jpl. But in recent years, there have been fewer of these to go around.
The White House and Congress — under both Presidents Biden and Trump — have focused heavily on manning the moon and Mars. At that time, the cost of the mission has increased due to economic factors ranging from economic costs from the cost of providing the cost of living workers, said Casey Dreseer, the organization of the Space Agency led by Bill Nye.
At the same time, a series of well-documented recent setbacks have not helped jpl’s cause.
After NASA Psyche Mission So that the iron-rich asteroid failed to achieve its launch date in 2022, the agency commissioned an independent review, which found that internal changes and personnel changes created by external managers.
And, in 2023, something heavy Independent Review Determining that there was “close to zero chance” of the Mars Sample Return making its proposed 2028 launch date, and “there is no” credible way to accomplish the mission within its budget.
NASA has liberally cut its money on the return of the Mars sample in anticipation of budget cuts from the conference – which, by extension, means a reduction in the amount paid to jpl. The center at the end he started looking for other plans From other NASA agencies and the private sector, putting JPL in a competitive position for its project.
jpl took place without nearly 5,000 people in the early 2010s to 6,500 to support auropar But with clipper and psyche now in space and Mars Sample Return Shelvere, the lab could not find roles for project workers.
“I struggled with balancing the passion I had for the work with the knowledge I could take away from projects at any time,” said the mechanical engineer, who said the jplers joined the lab for a fee. “Why should I pour my heart and soul into it? … most of the things we do don’t go anywhere. We’ll pack them in boxes and put them on the shelves.”
Then came the many layoffs that had laid him down.
In January 2024, this lab Let it go to 100 contractors on the site. After a month, 530 employees and 40 contractors. While NASA’s funding specification for jpl would not be completely changed by 2025, the lab put 325 additional employees.
JPL’s 2026 budget is uncertain, with the government in its third week of shutdown. But, regardless of which version of the budget the organization passes, the lab probably won’t see any significant new revenue streams.
That would explain why jpl – which says the latest stroff is not caused by the shutdown itself – chose October to send arloff notices.
In all these two years of strong layoffs – Which, all, eliminated almost a quarter of all employees – Workers could find the leaders of the lab are the same Halls, where they will be laid off and who will be laid off. They received several answers.
The jpl reddit forum, which was a place for aspiring engineers and scientists to ask employees about employment and lab life, turned sour. Employees vent their frustrations and post specific information that leaders won’t share.
“Morale at JPL is in shambles now,” said a mechanical engineer. “There is a lot of mistrust and dissatisfaction built up by people at the decision-making level of the lab.”
Nevertheless, he still sees the hope of the California science lab Planeeere Planetary BASS: “I honestly believe that jpl can burn you in a storm.”
This is not the first time JPL has faced a funding crisis.
In 1981, President Reagan’s administration proposed killing NASA funding for planetary science.
The NASA administrator at the time responded that the cuts would make JPL “necessary for our needs.” jpl is seriously considered returning to its origins by including the department of the Department of Defense, but Caltech’s politically connected leaders were able to support Galileo, jpli’s Mission Mission during the exploration of Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Few are hopeful that the return of a sample from Mars will bring back as much as Galileo. For example, dreier sees a different set of options for the lab in 2025: they depend more on defense projects and defense robots and robots to support NASA’s new mission of landing people on the moon and Mars.
“Who else has supported Mars as many times as jpl has?” Dreier said. (Answer: None. JPL has successfully done it nine times since 1976. In fact, a successful landing outside of JPL did not happen until 2021.)
The maintenance of jpl’s signature science missions such as the Mars Rovers and Jupiter Orbiting is a major challenge. Unlike in 1981, current proposals to cut government spending on science are far-reaching.
And while the space of the nearest celestial neighbors is certainly a worthy task, said Dreier, “the cosmos is much bigger than just the moon and the moon.”
