On Monday, July 21, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC) Center Director Mackenzie Lystrup announced in a message to colleagues that she will be “stepping aside.” The final day for Lystrup, who joined GSFC in April 2023, will be August 1.
The announcement comes as NASA faces the prospect of deep cuts should President Trump’s funding plan succeed, but also as Congress seems prepared to push back to save NASA’s funding. Under Trump’s proposal, GSFC stands to lose 48 percent of its civil servants, if one draws a direct correlation between funding and workforce (for more see the July 17 issue). On Sunday, July 20, protestors gathered outside NASA HQ in Washington, D.C., on “Moon Day,” a day commemorating the 1969 Apollo 11 mission and the first steps on the moon.
Lystrup didn’t say what her next steps would be but announced Deputy Center Director Cynthia Simmons would take the position of Acting Center Director. “I leave with confidence in Cynthia, the center leadership team, and all of you who will help shape the next chapter of this center. I am honored to have been a part of this incredible journey with you. It has been my privilege,” Lystrup wrote in the message to her colleagues, which the News Review obtained a copy of. In a separate message, Acting NASA Associate Administrator Vanessa Wyche expressed gratitude to Lystrup for leading over 8,000 civil servants and contractors at GSFC for over two years and wished her well in future endeavors.
The loss of the center’s director at this critical time sounds like bad news for GSFC, where workers are bracing for bad news and a potential Reduction in Force. Though some remain hopeful Congress will protect NASA’s budget and the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) that is Goddard’s primary funding source, it’s possible even then that Trump could withhold or refuse to spend money appropriated by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 seeks to limit that possibility and assure Congress retains the “power of the purse.”
NASA is losing thousands of employees, some through the Deferred Resignation Program, Voluntary Early Retirement and Voluntary Separation Incentive Program, announced in June, when the SMD was asked to plan for a 50 percent reduction (see the June 12 issue). However, others are fighting back. One Greenbelter who has been among those attending recent protests for the agency said a strong message at those events has been not to comply in advance. On July 16, Zoe Lofgren, Ranking Member of the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and Valerie P. Foushee, Ranking Member of its Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, sent a joint letter to NASA’s Interim Administrator Sean Duffy writing with “rising alarm for the future of NASA” and expressing just such an objection to advance compliance. “The notion that any executive branch agency would unilaterally take steps to implement a budget proposal before its budget is enacted by Congress is therefore offensive to our constitutional system. It would be illegal,” wrote Lofgren and Foushee.
“We believe the funding freezes currently being implemented at NASA, and across numerous other federal science agencies within the Committee’s jurisdiction, represent an overt act to carry out the White House’s directive to ‘align’ present-day agency spending with next year’s proposed budget. It should be obvious that such actions lack any authorization from Congress whatsoever and are flatly illegal. In taking these steps, the Trump Administration is violating the law, the Constitution, and the fundamental checks and balances between the branches of government that have governed our nation for more than two centuries,” reads the letter to Duffy. “NASA is currently operating under a continuing resolution for Fiscal Year 2025 that maintains largely the same funding levels for the agency as the previous year’s budget for Fiscal Year 2024,” state the pair, saying “roughly 2,700 employees and counting have accepted ‘deferred resignation’ offers amidst a campaign of pressure and intimidation overseen by senior agency officials,” and “This is impoundment in action, and it must stop immediately.”
