NASA will be effectively dead in 6 months- NASA will become nothing more than a way to give billionaires contracts.
There is no recovery possible from this. This is a collapse on the scale of the USSR falling apart. Its not just NASA, it is the NSF and all research. I am now fighting to find ways to do what I can to help the dedicated people that worked for me on my team find jobs.
NASA -the one thing about America that was essentially universally respected- is over. And most here don’t yet realize it.
I will write more when I can, but its really impossible to explain the incredible, heartbreaking scale of the destruction and waste, the killing of people’s life work, and the incredible STUPIDITY at work in this destruction.
Every dollar invested in NASA returned $7 to the economy…. but the billionaires are killing the golden goose for short term profit. This has nothing to do with fiscal responsibility, nothing to do with efficiency… it is looting and burning the best of America …
Goddard alone will be losing 50% of its people- the ‘leadership’ at NASA isn’t waiting for the budget to become official, they are just pre-emptively complying. Even though my chances of NOT being fired myself I _think_ are better than most, there is no way I can continue to do the work that has meant so much to me- and to the nation.
You may be inclined to think this is hyperbole- I assure you it is not. They are targeting %50 cuts at Goddard, nearly that much at Glenn Research Center… Countless existing missions in space now will be abandoned, missions like the Roman space telescope – which is nearly ready to launch- will be cancelled. The people with the knowledge of how to do these great things will be thrown away…. fired without cause in violation of their contracts. The US will NOT recover, there will be no rebuild… It is simply over.
Our nation will no longer dare to dream. We will not inspire… We are burning the fleets and turning inwards… focusing our energy on tearing apart our nation with hatred, looting the institutions that are left.
This is the end…. I wish I could offer some hope, but there is none.