As the US federal government’s shutdown drags on, NASA staffers are raising concerns over a dozen buildings on its Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC) main campus in Maryland being emptied without notice.
The campus serves as the headquarters for some extremely important missions, including NASA’s Hubble and James Webb space telescopes.
Highly specialized equipment is at risk of being thrown away like trash, according to internal communications reviewed by CNN. For instance, a building housing Goddard’s ElectroMagnetic Anechoic Chamber (GEMAC), an extremely important piece of equipment for testing spacecraft antennas, is being shuttered.
“It’s like taking a Maserati to the junkyard to get crushed because your driver’s license expired,” a source told CNN. “The GEMAC is fully operational and could go on for many more years to support in-house, out of house, and the industry (like it has for several decades).”
“Many NASA scientists are concerned they could permanently lose access to equipment and facilities they need to conduct planned NASA missions, throwing future space science research into peril,” international space science advocacy group Advancing Earth and Space Science wrote in a draft letter to legislators.
The closures could impact the launch of the JWST’s successor, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, as well as its Dragonfly program, which is hoping to send a large helicopter to Saturn’s largest moon — concerns that a NASA spokesperson has since denied.
A NASA spokesperson told the broadcaster that the closures are all part of an existing “strategic consolidation” plan that shouldn’t impact existing projects.
Yet roughly 100 laboratories across 13 buildings of the campus’s more than 30 structures are being closed. Many of the affected buildings weren’t meant to be shut down until the early 2030s.
Despite the agency’s reassurances, it’s nonetheless concerning that the Trump administration is quietly dismantling the GSFC’s campus during an ongoing shutdown, yet another sign that the space agency is being taken apart piece by piece, even as large swathes of the government remain unfunded.
Morale has taken a huge hit as the agency continues to be put under immense pressure, with staffers worrying that Trump may make good on his threat of not paying them back for unpaid labor during the shutdown.
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