Thank you to everyone who tuned in for this week’s agency town hall. More than 32,000 of you watched through townhall.nasa.gov – and that doesn’t include those who gathered in auditoriums and conference rooms to watch together. A big thanks to our Office of the Chief Information Officer for putting key measures in place to ensure we stayed online and uninterrupted from start to finish. Keith’s note: here is the audio from the Town hall event – note that although the topic of RIF was frequently asked, Janet Petro makes zero mention of that word or statements that she and her staff made in this sanitized version of the event. Instead it is all about “voluntary workforce shaping”.
We covered a lot of ground and tackled some tough topics. I want to reiterate a few key points here:
- Reorganizations are a process – and will take time. I expect to decide on the top-level structure and begin engaging our stakeholders in the coming weeks. That structure will only go down to the center level initially. What happens below that will take shape over time, and I ask for your patience as this reshaping effort takes place – it will take time before we know how this impacts individuals. We are reorganizing to become the most efficient and effective organization we can be – aligned to the mission we are charged with and the resources we expect to receive.
- We are offering a limited window of voluntary workforce shaping tools to avoid any involuntary separations. For civil servants, the opt-in period for the Deferred Resignation Program (DRP), Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA), and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment (VSIP) is open through July 25. We do not plan to offer these programs again. With our budget trending downward and reorganization ahead, these voluntary options offer an off-ramp for those who want to take it.
- The President’s FY 2026 Budget Request for NASA is NASA’s budget request – and while it’s still working through Congress, we have to begin preparing to align our workforce and resources now to meet the mission priorities it outlines.
I know many of you are facing deeply personal decisions in the weeks ahead – and I understand how heavy that can feel. Those feelings are valid. It’s also understandable to want more clarity. The information that’s available now – whether it’s the proposed budget or the resources through the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer – is the information we have. Sometimes, we’re asked to make decisions without the full data set, and I encourage you to lean on your support system, talk things through, and make the best choice for you.
Even in the midst of this, we have a mission to carry out, and I continue to be impressed by what this team gets done. A few recent highlights:
- NASA and Roscosmos recently agreed to lower the pressure in the transfer tunnel of the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module following repair work, enabling us to proceed with Axiom Mission 4. The mission launched early Wednesday, carrying former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson alongside astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary. This milestone reflects the strength of NASA’s international partnerships and commercial capabilities, with U.S. industry helping expand opportunity and access to space on a global scale.
- NASA’s System-Wide Safety project is working with aviation safety company ResilienX, which recently demonstrated how NASA-developed tools that assess risk – like those predicting navigation performance and airspace congestion – are being integrated into their commercial systems. This collaboration already is leading to direct tech transfer to ResilienX and indirect benefits for partners, such as the U.S. Air Force, advancing safety in future airspace operations.
- Teams at Kennedy Space Center continued fueling the Orion spacecraft for Artemis II inside the Multi-Payload Processing Facility, and the Artemis II astronauts recently joined the launch team for a variety of launch-day scenarios. These integrated exercises help ensure both crew and ground teams are fully prepared for their mission around the Moon.
- Technicians have installed and integrated two critical instruments, CoDICE and SWAPI, onto our IMAP spacecraft as of June 23, ahead of its targeted fall launch. IMAP will monitor space weather and map the heliosphere from a vantage point near L1, providing nearrealtime data to map the entire heliosphere, as well as study the physics of how particles gain energy.
- NASA’s TechLeap Prize selected teams from industry and academia to develop solutions for critical NASA and commercial space industry needs in the Space Technology Payload Challenge, such as producing consumables from Martian regolith (University of Texas, San Antonio) and in-space biomanufacturing systems for long-duration human spaceflight (Ambrosia Space). With the opportunity for flight testing with commercial providers, the challenge enables quicker paths to the flight heritage needed for future space missions, achieving efficient and impactful technology advancements.
- NASA’s Office of Communications received an Emmy Award this week at the 46th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards for Outstanding Live News Special – recognizing our broadcast coverage of the 2024 total solar eclipse. This honor reflects the incredible talent and coordination behind the scenes: twelve telescope feeds, 11 correspondents across 2,000 miles, nine watch parties, and live video from the International Space Station, a high-altitude research aircraft, and Wallops Flight Facility – all routed through multiple NASA control rooms and brought together at our broadcast hub at Glenn Research Center. It was a remarkable feat of engineering and storytelling and a proud moment for the entire agency.
Finally, I’ve asked officials in charge to implement a “quiet week” for civil servants starting Monday, June 30. While mission-critical work will continue, I’m encouraging teams to scale back on meetings where possible, provided it doesn’t disrupt operational or organizational priorities. If you’re considering taking leave, please coordinate with your supervisor.
Thank you for all that you do, and have a great weekend.
Embrace the Challenge,
Janet
