OMG – NASA just fired 500 scientists. America's space exploration could be crippled?

Photo above -nighttime light show. 40 of Elon Musk's Starlink satellites fall to earth at once, after encountering a solar flare. Thankfully, most of the expense was borne by Musk, and not taxpayers.

I was alarmed when I encountered the link below. 550 scientists at NASA’s JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab) in Pasadena were laid off. I was worried that everything would grind to a halt, and the Chinese would plant their flag on Mars before us.

Then I read further, and discovered that this is only a 10% reduction in the workforce at the Pasadena site. Another 4,500 remain on the job. Whew . . . that was a close one.

I fully expect at this point that Star Trek fanboys will downvote this thread. There is still so much to be discovered, of course: what is dark matter made of? Is dark energy even real, or is it an illusion? When will warp drive be available? Are aliens trying to mate with us?

Okay, some of those aren’t real questions. But the nature of dark matter and dark energy – if they’re finally answered – aren’t going to solve much here on earth. (Insert science fiction fans’ enraged rant: “You never know what the space program will produce next - look at Velcro” . . .

I want to be both a realist AND an optimist. We spend WAAAY too much on investigating black holes and purported interstellar spacecraft that ALWAYS turn out to be comets or asteroids. I don’t expect any significant government savings from asking these 500 poor souls to find work in the private sector. This layoff isn’t going to make a dent in our $37 trillion national debt. It’s not going to result in affordable housing. It’s not going to stop the polar ice caps from melting.

NASA has – for years – suffered from ineptitude and disagreement over its purported mission. Should we go back to the moon? Somehow save the leaky International Space Station? We don’t even have any rockets that can get our astronauts back and forth to the ISS. We're stuck hitching rides with our mortal enemies – the Russians. The guys who are committing daily war crimes in Ukraine, and cutting undersea internet cables.

There are a bunch of perfectly fine countries we are often asked to emulate: Finland, England, Switzerland, Canada, Japan. As far as I can tell, none of them has plans for a moonbase, to colonize mars, or to launch a space telescope “to see to the very beginning of the universe”. It's all about priorities, I guess.

I would love to hear that naked apes have made it to Mars, with or without Musk’s full self driving Starship. I’d love to know what happened before the big bang. But these questions don’t keep me up at night. I can look outside my bedroom window and see real problems. And continuing to spend big bucks on a telescope that can find the restaurant at the end of the universe won't fix anything important here on earth.

Sorry space scientists. See if the fusion energy guys or solid-state battery guys are hiring. They're always claiming success is just around the corner. And they might appreciate some help getting there.

I’m just sayin’ . . .


NASA Fires 550 Engineers—Deep Space Projects Frozen in Shutdown Wave