NASA may lose close to 4,000 employees after latest deferred resignation round

The second round of deferred resignations for NASA staff closed on Friday, and the agency says roughly 3,000 employees applied to leave, according to Bloomberg. The Trump administration first offered the deferred resignation program as a buyout to government workers in January as it gutted the federal workforce under the guidance of DOGE — then led by Elon Musk — asking employees to resign while still receiving benefits and pay for a period of time. In the earlier round, 870 NASA employees reportedly opted to leave. The space agency opened a second round in June, with a July 25 deadline.

The latest batch of applications brings the total to nearly 4,000 employees, or roughly 20 percent of NASA's workforce, according to a statement provided to Bloomberg. It comes after Politico reported earlier this month that over 2,000 senior NASA staff members have agreed to leave.

NASA is grappling with proposed budget cuts that could crush the agency's science programs and result in the loss of thousands of jobs. A group of current and former NASA employees called on Interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy to reject the "harmful cuts" in a letter published on July 21, writing that recent policies "threaten to waste public resources, compromise human safety, weaken national security, and undermine the core NASA mission."