Thousands of NASA employees to bid farewell to the NASA they knew

"NASA didn't begin in a vacuum, but rather as a response to a unique event in human history: the 1957 launch of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union. Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite in all of Earth's history, completing an orbit around the Earth at an altitude of hundreds of miles (or kilometers) above the ground every 90 minutes."

"In addition to its endeavors in spaceflight, NASA brought to us the idea of space exploration, and using a presence in space to better understand the Universe around us: the Earth, the Sun, the Solar System, and the greater Universe of which we're all a part of. Its four main science directives, for decades, have brought to us a superior understanding of Earth science, heliophysics, planetary science, and astrophysics than ever before."

NASA has driven human exploration beyond Earth for over sixty years, achieving the first crewed Moon landings and many other accomplishments. The agency inspired global hope and established space exploration as a tool to study the Earth, the Sun, the Solar System, and the wider Universe. NASA's four science directives—Earth science, heliophysics, planetary science, and astrophysics—produced unprecedented knowledge. The agency emerged after the 1957 Sputnik launch, which triggered the space race and the beginning of science conducted from space. Early decades saw the United States and the Soviet Union lead crewed, uncrewed, and planetary probe missions. In October 2025 thousands of longtime employees began leaving, sharply reducing science and STEM education capacity.

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