NASA is eliminating its chief scientist and other roles as part of efforts by the Trump administration to pare back staff at the agency’s Washington headquarters.
The cuts affect about 20 employees at NASA, including Katherine Calvin, the chief scientist and a climate science expert. The last day of work for Dr. Calvin and the other staff members will be April 10.
That could be a harbinger of deeper cuts to NASA’s science missions and a greater emphasis on human spaceflight, especially to Mars. During President Trump’s address to Congress last week, he said, “We are going to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond.”
Mr. Trump did not give a timeline for astronauts to reach the red planet, and during an interview on Fox News on Sunday, he said it was not a top priority. “Is it No. 1 on my hit list?” he said. “No. It’s not really.”
He added, “It’d be a great achievement.”
The administration sent notice to Congress on Monday that NASA was abolishing the Office of the Chief Scientist and the Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy.
“This is shortsighted and hugely alarming,” Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California and the ranking member on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, said in a statement. “Trump’s assault on science continues. If you wanted a playbook on how to lose to China in every technological race, this is it.”
Bhavya Lal, who served as the associate administrator for technology, policy and strategy when the office was created in 2021, said the purpose of the office was to provide “rigorous, quick-turn, data-driven and objective analysis to decision makers at NASA and the White House” on issues that often cut across federal agencies.
The issues included the economics of removing space debris and shaping how future activities on the moon would be governed. The work of the office “wasn’t just about getting to the moon,” Dr. Lal said. “It was about laying the groundwork for sustainable lunar exploration.”
The office also “made sure that NASA’s push for innovation was balanced with thoughtful consideration of its long-term impacts,” she said.
The eliminated positions include the chief technologist and chief economist for the agency, which were part of the technology, policy and strategy office. Chief technologist positions at NASA centers like the Johnson Space Center in Houston and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida are not affected, the notice said.
The agency is also cutting several positions related to diversity, equity and inclusion in its Office of Equal Opportunity.
The notice said that NASA estimated severance costs would be about $1.2 million.
“To optimize our work force, and in compliance with an executive order, NASA is beginning its phased approach to a reduction in force, known as a RIF,” Cheryl Wheeler, a NASA spokeswoman, said in an email. “A small number of individuals received notification Monday they are a part of NASA’s RIF.”
Eligible employees could opt for early retirement, Ms. Wheeler said.
The Democratic House staff members said they worried deeper cuts at NASA would follow.
Last week, the Planetary Society, a nonprofit that promotes space exploration, raised alarms that the Trump administration could be considering slashing the budget for NASA’s science activities by half.
The job eliminations announced on Monday “are more symbolic, and certainly less impactful than some of the other numbers we’re hearing for budget or further RIFs,” Casey Dreier, the chief of space policy at the society, said in an email.
Dr. Calvin was appointed as NASA’s chief scientist in January 2022. Since 2008, she has been a researcher at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Joint Global Change Research Institute in College Park, Md. In 2023, she was named a chair of a working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body that supplies scientific information to governments as they work on national climate policies.
The role of the chief scientist has been to advise the NASA administrator and other top officials on strategic planning. Dr. Calvin is the agency’s 11th chief scientist since 1982. The position was previously eliminated in 2005 during the presidency of George W. Bush and was recreated in 2011 when Barack Obama was president.
The chief scientist position is separate from that of the associate administrator who runs NASA’s science mission directorate, Nicola Fox.
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