NASA advances plan to shrink Goddard campus by 25%

NASA is moving quickly to consolidate up to a quarter of its suburban Maryland campus.

The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers told its members in a recent issue brief that the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is embarking on plans to close 13 buildings on the west side of its campus.

According to the union, the building closures began Sept. 23 and continued through the recent government shutdown. IFPTE said the consolidation of NASA Goddard’s campus includes plans to “empty” or “displace” nearly 100 laboratories — and in some cases, “discard unique and valuable labs, equipment, and materials.”

NASA’s master plan for its Goddard campus calls for a 25% reduction of its square footage by 2037. NASA released the master plan in February 2022.

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Democratic lawmakers are warning NASA about the pace of this consolidation work, and raising concerns that relocating these labs could set back research projects across the campus.

Senior NASA leaders, however, say campus consolidation is urgent and will help the agency save tens of millions of dollars by closing unnecessary buildings.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center is the nation’s largest organization of scientists and engineers who build spacecraft, as well as tools to study Earth, the sun, the solar system and the universe.

According to IFPTE, NASA expects the buildings marked for closure to be emptied out by March 2026, “a deadline that can only result in significant harm or destruction to NASA’s strategic capabilities and critical NASA missions.” The union said NASA called in Goddard campus employees and contractors during the recent government shutdown to move their equipment and belongings.

“The unplanned and hasty nature of the action is poised to result in the loss of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded laboratory facilities, including sophisticated and high-value equipment that will be difficult, if not impossible, to replace,” IPFTE told its members.

IPFTE said it’s not clear whether this work was deemed exempt from the shutdown, or whether the consolidation activities violated the Antideficiency Act.

“In some instances, employees have been recalled from furlough status and given 48 hours to pack up their offices under threat of having their personal belongings thrown away or mishandled,” the union told members.

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House Science, Space and Technology Committee Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) called on NASA to “immediately halt” all building closures and relocation activities. Lofgren said committee staff were told that additional Goddard facilities would be emptied out as soon as Nov. 12.

Lofgren told NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy, who is also the Secretary of Transportation, that the pace of consolidation could “irreversibly degrade critical functions supporting NASA’s flight missions,” damage specialized equipment and “permanently kneecap the agency.”

“The agency’s hastily planned moves and closures – some of which I understand are already well underway – risk causing significant delays for multi-billion-dollar missions under development,” Lofgren wrote in a Nov. 10 letter.

Lofgren said the consolidation plans would impact a propulsion lab that is “mission-critical” for the completion of the Roman Space Telescope, one of NASA’s flagship scientific missions.

“I fully recognize the challenges of NASA’s aging infrastructure and the need to modernize and improve the agency’s centers. But that is far from what is happening at Goddard today,” Lofgren wrote. She said she will ask NASA’s inspector general to investigate the Goddard campus consolidation plans.

NASA leadership, however, told Lofgren that claims NASA Goddard is being shut down or dismantled “could not be further from the truth.”

Cynthia Simmons, the acting director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate, told Lofgren that rising operations and maintenance costs and a static budget “have forced NASA to implement efforts to ensure the center’s long-term viability through more efficiently utilizing available space and consolidating or reconstituting facilities.”

They said efforts to reduce operations and maintenance costs at other campuses started over five years ago, and that plans for consolidation efforts at the Greenbelt campus began in June 2023.

“This ongoing work will make Goddard better positioned to lead the development, integration, and testing of NASA Science flight missions,” they wrote.

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Simmons and Fox said the campus consolidation will cut Goddard’s annual operating costs by $10 million, and would avoid $64 million in deferred maintenance costs.

“This work is being carefully coordinated with the mission project managers of the critical missions currently in development to avoid impacting schedule and/or increasing costs. In many cases, waiting to reconfigure laboratories or technical workspaces would unnecessarily delay program work and increase mission cost,” they wrote.

NASA, much like the rest of the federal government, has been funded through a continuing resolution for about the past two years — meaning its budget is locked in at spending levels set in fiscal 2024.

Simmons and Fox said these CRs, combined with rising operations and maintenance costs over a prolonged period, have forced NASA to ensure the campus’s “long-term viability through more efficiently utilizing available space and consolidating or reconstituting facilities.”

NASA also is funded at current spending levels through Jan. 30, 2026. Its safety, security and mission services budget, which includes building and infrastructure spending, is likely to remain unchanged in a fiscal 2026 funding bill.

IPFTE, however, says these building closures “are themselves extremely costly and wasteful.” The union says the labs impacted by the consolidation are also by other federal agencies, universities, and private-sector companies.

Lawmakers from Maryland are also raising concerns about the Goddard campus consolidation.

“We believe that any consolidation on the Greenbelt campus must sustain the world-class capabilities of Goddard for future science and exploration missions and comply with all applicable laws,” they wrote in a letter to NASA’s leadership.

Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), and with Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.), April McClain Delaney (D-Md.), and Johnny Olszewski (D-Md.) say thousands of NASA employees at the Goddard campus have left this year, both through layoffs and voluntary separation incentives.

“Unfortunately, actions taken during the last nine months threaten the workers at Goddard and their ability to lead the world in this science and exploration,” the lawmakers wrote.

If you would like to contact this reporter about recent changes in the federal government, please email jheckman@federalnewsnetwork.com, or reach out on Signal at jheckman.29

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