Washington, March 25: NASA layoffs were announced recently, affecting several space agency workers. The layoffs were initiated as a part of President Trump's efforts to cutting government costs to save trillions. Following NASA layoffs, many affected employees reacted and called the decision as 'targeted' and 'cruel'. The space agency will go through a reorganisation as a part of its plan to chase its ambitious goal for the first time in its long history, said a report. 

According to a report published by CNN, US President Donald Trump issued an order to the federal agencies to eliminate "waste, bloat and insularity". However, it highlighted that it was unclear how NASA was associated with the sweeping changes. NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro said that for the past weeks, the internal team of the agency, called the "Tiger Team", defined a strategy to identify optimisation opportunities.  IBM Layoffs: Tech Giant Reportedly Cutting Jobs Across US, Classic Cloud Operations, 9,000 Likely To Be Affected, Says Report.

Janet Petro further said that the internal team identified areas to streamline operations and reduce duplicative reporting and analysis. Further, they targeted areas that accelerated the velocity of decisions and looked for cost-saving measures. Petro pointed out that instead of prescribing specific changes, the internal submission outlined those areas involved in finding the best approach for NASA's future. 

According to one source highlighted by the report, NASA layoffs "targeted" the people and were "extremely cruel and callous and needless." The source reportedly said that the NASA staff was also denied bonus packages. In February 2025, NASA struck a deal with the Office of Personnel Management to dodge the layoffs of the probationary workers requested by DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency).  Tech Layoffs 2025: 23,382 Employees Laid Off by 89 Companies So Far This Year Due to Various Reasons; Check Details.

Despite that move, the report said that unanticipated layoffs on March 10 already affected staff from three offices, including two top policy divisions and some senior science and engineering personnel at NASA HQ in Washington, DC.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 25, 2025 12:35 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).