4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

Post by eagerpace » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 1:28 AM UTC

nytesky wrote: post #490

eagerpace wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hesitated posting this because my very moderate east coast American perspective seems to be appreciated less and less here. I posted this on a lazy Sunday morning and it got a lot of positive initial comments and discussion. Then a few hours later it turned negative. Science is great but launch vehicle innovation is where the problem is so that’s why I focused on SLS. We could easily have 100 JWSTs today if somethi…

I’m afraid I don’t understand how Starship could help proliferate JWST. It was launched with Ariana 5 which is a mature launch system. The bottleneck is actual manufacturing of JWST - the folding mirror was especially fraught; I think the sunshield as well.

Post by saratogacx » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 1:50 AM UTC

msgodel wrote: post #485

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a way of hitting back at "the elites" who have the temerity to call GOP politicians and donors out for their lies and bad behavior True for academic institutions. No evidence this is the motivation at NASA. Simpler: science costs money and leadership believes that money is better spent giving folks like me a tax cut than paying for poor folks' healthcare or basic research. Fortunately, it looks like Beijing is read…

>that money is better spent giving folks like me a tax cut The federal government now accepts donations if you don't want the money.

Post by eru » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 1:57 AM UTC

godelski wrote: post #466

gammarator wrote: post #441

Comments about SLS miss what’s happening. SLS is inefficient and wasteful, but human spaceflight is not what’s getting cut at NASA. Instead, very productive current and future science missions are getting killed, in defiance of Congress [1]. Until this year, NASA was the world leader in space science. We’re pushing out the experts who build and operate astrophysics missions like Hubble, Chandra, JWST, Kepler, TESS, S…

> the world leader in space science. I also want to add that science is a critical investment area for anyone interested in engineering. There is this common belief of "I just want to make things work" and that science is really unimportant here and are concerned with things that don't matter. The truth is that science builds the foundation for that other stuff. It is the very ground you stand on. Engineering without…

Post by godelski » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:06 AM UTC

mikeyouse wrote: post #527

godelski wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The cuts to [...] are not really saving that much money, but are destroying literally trillions of dollars of future economic value I think everyone (or at least the parent) understands that. I mean there's a part that's deeply connected to what I said in another comment[0] The real issue is essentially: which would you rather have, $1 now or $10 tomorrow?[1] People see it as savings because they have that money no…

This apologia for the cuts would be more persuasive if they didn’t come in concert with record-breaking increases to the pentagon budget and historic deficits. There’s no calculation happening here with present or future value, they’re lavishly funding things they like and decimating things they don’t. You don’t place a reality TV ‘star’ as the director of any agency you care about.

  > This apologia for the cut

Post by presentation » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 2:09 AM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #339

BobbyJo wrote: post #333

The Federal Reserve is an example of a well run and focused organization, because they have a very short, very simple mandate: maximize employment and ensure price stability. Everything they do is in service to those two goals and every employee can hold themselves and their bosses accountable for those goals. Elected representatives and the American public can hold them accountable. If we want a more efficient and i…

This is a ridiculous statement. The Fed is a profoundly undemocratic institution that harnesses the power of the state to serve the interests of capital, and its current form is a recent development that coincides with the financialization of our economy and the decimation of manufacturing and the middle class. If you want the full argument it’s here: https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/federal-reserve-independe...