A memo from NASA’s chief financial officer this week suggests the agency has furloughed more than 80 percent of its civil service workforce following a Wednesday shutdown of the federal government.
The furlough plan targets the agency’s workforce of more than 15,000 civil servants. That includes 2,317 employees – or about 15 percent of the total agency – at the Houston-based Johnson Space Center. The Johnson Space Center employees included in the furlough cover about 73 percent of the total Houston-based workforce.
Employees of the space agency who are furloughed will receive back pay at the conclusion of the shutdown. The agency plans to work with the payroll provider to make sure paychecks are dispersed quickly, though the process may be delayed depending on the length of the shutdown.
Space Center Houston, the visitor’s center of the Johnson Space Center, will remain open to guests through the federal government shutdown, according to a press release. Specialty tours that include access to the space center are temporarily paused, while public tours to the space center will continue.
The visitor’s center is a non-profit organization, and not an entity of the federal space agency.
The Monday memo to NASA’s Office of Management and Budget details a short-term plan to address a shutdown of operations. In the event of a lapse in funding, according to the seven-page document, satellite operations, the International Space Station and Artemis program developments will continue.
The operations of NASA education instructions, public access to televised programming and certain research activities will temporarily cease during the lapse.
“NASA will carefully evaluate the circumstances of each anticipated shutdown in regard to available funds when determining the date for commencing orderly shutdown of non-excepted activities for each account,” according to the memo.
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