this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2025
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Summary

The White House unexpectedly decided not to terminate over 1,000 probationary NASA employees on Tuesday, despite similar cuts at other federal agencies.

NASA had requested exemptions, but it’s unclear why the reprieve was granted. Some speculate that Jared Isaacman, Trump’s nominee to lead NASA, may have intervened.

While this decision spares employees for now, the administration is still considering significant workforce reductions in the coming months.

NASA field centers have been instructed to prepare for possible layoffs, though final decisions may require congressional approval.

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[–] chonglibloodsport 70 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Musk realized at the last minute that NASA is one of his (SpaceX’s) biggest customers! Whew that was a close one there!

[–] einlander 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Nah, it was just blatantly bad optics.

[–] whostosay 22 points 2 days ago

Lol optics? The only thing they care less about is us.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago
[–] danc4498 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We think airplanes crashing is bad for PR. A Nasa failure being credited to Trump would be catastrophic.

[–] some_designer_dude 12 points 1 day ago

Why? Nothing sticks to Trump. Nothing bad that happens is going to be his fault, ever, in the glazed eyes of his moronic followers. He’s firing a bunch of educated weenies? Nice! Got ‘em. That’ll teach them to think they’re smarter than everyone else. Who’s a rocket scientist now?!

[–] Zachariah 59 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] cmbabul 33 points 2 days ago (1 children)

At this point even when they do something I like, killing the penny for example, makes me sus

[–] cybervseas 26 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"The penny is abolished! We still need to complete all transactions with exact change though. If your transaction ends in a 0.01, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, or 9, just pay your bill using TrumpCents, the only cryptocurrency approved for payments to/from Treasury, IRS, Social Security, and Medicare! TrumpCents: they just make sense."

[–] jaybone 8 points 2 days ago

“They did it in Superman 2”

[–] Art3sian 34 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Imagine the morale there. No one’s going to give a fuck there now, and fair enough.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Just make a a rocket for space tourism for all the US administration and billionaire friends. With all those workers still at NASA that project should be realized in like 6 months. 4 months, if Elons taking care of efficiency.

[–] P00ptart 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You're talking one way, right? It wouldn't even take that long if all you need to do is make sure it gets to space and doesn't come back.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

"Efficiency" under Musk is an 80% chance of components to work as expected.

[–] werefreeatlast 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Meanwhile at the space station... Stranded astronauts desperately build a parachute using their clothes, duct tape (the good stuff, not that home depot crap) and USB cables. They must make the hard decision to decide who should jump and who should remain in space.... Forever!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you jump off of the space station you would just keep circling the Earth. Even if you had a parachute.

[–] _stranger_ 5 points 1 day ago

You'd deorbit eventually, but the parachute probably wouldn't help you at that point.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

Flip flop fuck faces

[–] Lennnny 6 points 2 days ago

Asteroid is like "ok I'll go back down to 2.3%, but don't try that again"

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

They probably agreed to cooperate with Trump's immigration crackdown. Wait no, that's our crooked mayor.

[–] TokenBoomer 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not the EPA, not the Dept. of Education, but NASA, the place they’ve been cutting the funding for 40 years. It really is the Nerd Reich.

[–] whostosay 9 points 2 days ago

Nah these aren't nerds, they don't make or do anything aside from spending insane amounts of money to make even more insane amounts of money.

[–] kreskin 1 points 1 day ago

For a while It looked like "giant meteor" was going to have a chance.