Trump’s NASA cuts ‘will compromise human security,’ hundreds of employees say in the letter

NASA scientists say the pending cuts in the space agency may compromise on mission security and pave the way for another tragedy like Challenger Disaster of 1986.

A research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland, Kyl Helson, said, “When you are talking about cuts that are insensitive and uncontrollably research and are not inspired by real reforms in mission security, you start worrying people,” Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center and Maryland University said, ” As it happens Guest Maging Megan Williams.

Helson 362 is one of the current and former NASA employees who have Signed an open letter “Ringing alarm about recent policies, which is a threat to wasting public resources, compromising human security, weakening national security and weakening the core NASA mission.”

In an email to the CBC, NASA spokesman Bethani Stevens rejected those concerns.

“NASA will never compromise on security. Any deduction-will be designed to protect the current-security-matched roles, including current voluntary decrease,” she said.

$ 6B us in proposed deduction

US President Donald Trump is demanding 25 percent, or approximately $ 6 billion US ($ 8.22 billion CDN), budget cuts for NASA, and 50 percent cut for scientific research division.

Stevens said, “President Trump has proposed billions of dollars for NASA science, which demonstrate ongoing commitment to communicate our scientific achievements.”

Helson says that this is technically true, but wildly dissatisfied.

“It’s like saying that your bicycle is missing one wheel, but don’t worry, you still got another wheel,” he said.

Trump’s cuts have been approved by the Congress so far, which keeps NASA’s purse strings. But in Audio leaked from NASA Town Hall meeting last monthMany high ranked officials said that they would move forward with them anyway.

The top Democrats of a House Committee, which oversees NASA’s budget, Zo Lofgrain and Valerie P. Faisi has said that premature cuts will have to be implemented “Flattenedly illegal” and “aggressive to our constitutional system.”

Is a bipartisan committee Asked NASA not to implement the cut.

Fear of vengeance

The open letter called Vyzer Declaration has been addressed to the Secretary of Transport Secretary Scene Dafi, who appointed the interim NASA Administrator earlier this month. Dafi’s office directed NASA to call a call for comment.

The announcement especially cites concerns that, if NASA continues with this path, existing missions will be canceled, valuable scientific data will be lost, international partners will be left, development programs will be nicketed, staffing will be reduced and safety measures will be scaled back.

It follows similar open letters Workers at National Institute of Health (NIH) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), whose latter Suspended by 144 employees suspended.

NASA workers are afraid of similar vengeance.

Half of those who signed the letter did this anonymously, and only four signators who currently work with NASA are ready to speak on records, According to stand up for scienceThe organization that helped organize this letter, and in NIH and EPA.

Helson is one of those four, and says he is speaking only comfortable because his work with NASA is in collaboration with the University of Maryland, Baltimor County, a position he says that he gives him more educational freedom than people employed directly by NASA.

He said, “Many of my colleagues who are civil servants are very afraid right now, and so I want to use my benefits in my position to speak on my behalf.”

“People are afraid that they are going to lose their jobs.”

NASA did not answer questions from the CBC whether it would retaliate against the signs of the letter.

This letter has been given a reference to “formal dissatisfaction,” policy of NASA, which empowers employees to speak against the decisions that they believe that “NASA is not in the best interest.”

According to New York TimesThe policy was placed after the 1986 Challenger and the 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle Disasters, when some engineers’ concerns were brushed on one side.

Challenger broke a few seconds in his flight on January 28, 1986, killing all seven astronauts. Columbia disintegrated on re -entering on 1 February 2003, killing its crew of seven.

The signs of the letter say they are concerned that other policies designed to prevent those types of tragedies will be affected by cuts.

The letter states, “The culture of organizational silence promoted in NASA in the last six months represents a dangerous turn from the lessons learned after the Colombia disaster.”