\u201cMajor programmatic shifts at NASA must be implemented strategically so that risks are managed carefully,\u201d states the letter to Duffy, a former member of Congress, prosecutor and reality TV personality who also currently serves as Transportation secretary. \u201cInstead, the last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA\u2019s workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter raises concerns about suggested changes to NASA\u2019s Technical Authority, a system of safety checks and balances at the agency.<\/p>\n
![\"Transportation](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/da9cccb64c7976797249f0712059aee9.jpeg\"\/)
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Transportation Secretary, and now acting NASA Administrator, Sean Duffy speaks at a news conference in Washington, DC, on June 12. – Eric Lee\/Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Established in the wake of the 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster that killed seven astronauts, the Technical Authority aims to ensure mission safety by allowing NASA employees at all levels of the agency to voice safety concerns to leaders outside their direct chain of command.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a significant disagreement with a technical decision that\u2019s being made, (the system) gives someone an alternate avenue that\u2019s not their project manager or program manager\u201d to express that concern, a source at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, told CNN.<\/p>\n
Changes to that system \u201cshould be made only in the interests of improving safety, not in anticipation of future budget cuts,\u201d the declaration reads.<\/p>\n
The source said that they considered looming changes \u201ca really scary prospect, especially for my colleagues who work directly on the human spaceflight side of things.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter comes as the agency is grappling with the impending loss of thousands of employees and broader restructuring.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for NASA leadership did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
A risky resistance<\/p>\n
The signed letter is the most recent in a string of declarations rebuking proposed cuts and changes at other federal agencies.<\/p>\n
Some National Institutes of Health employees led the way in June, publishing a declaration opposing what they called the politicization of research<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another letter, signed by federal workers<\/a> at the Environmental Protection Agency earlier this month, resulted in about 140 people being placed on administrative leave. At least some of those workers will remain on leave until at least August 1, \u201cpending the Agency\u2019s inquiry,\u201d according to internal email correspondence obtained by CNN.<\/p>\n One signatory of the NASA letter who spoke to CNN said they felt that expressing dissent against the Trump administration may pose a risk to their livelihoods, but they believed the stakes were too high to remain silent.<\/p>\n Ella Kaplan, a contractor employed by Global Science and Technology Inc. and the website administrator for the NASA Scientific Visualization Studio, said she decided to publicly attach her name to the Voyager Declaration because \u201cthe overall culture at NASA has very much shifted \u2014 and it feels a lot less safe for me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s been felt kind of universally by most minority employees at NASA,\u201d Kaplan said.<\/p>\n While Kaplan said her job has not yet been directly threatened, in her view, \u201cI\u2019m a member of the LGBT community \u2026 and I\u2019m probably going to be fired for this at some point, so I might as well do as much community organizing as possible before that point.\u201d<\/p>\n A changing culture<\/p>\n The letter and its signatories implore Duffy to evaluate recent policies they say \u201chave or threaten to waste public resources, compromise human safety, weaken national security, and undermine the core NASA mission.\u201d<\/p>\n The declaration\u2019s criticism of changes to NASA\u2019s Technical Authority stem from statements made at an agency town hall in June. During that meeting, NASA executives said they planned to attempt to make the Technical Authority more \u201cefficient.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re looking at: \u2018How do we do programs and projects more efficiently? And how much should we be spending on oversight?\u2019\u201d said Vanessa Wyche, NASA\u2019s acting associate administrator.<\/p>\n NASA worker Nicole Smith wipes a tear from her face as she visits a makeshift memorial for the seven-person Columbia crew at one of the gates of the Johnson Space Center in Houston on February 7, 2003. – Roberto Schmidt\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Garrett Reisman \u2014 a former NASA astronaut and engineer who later served as a SpaceX advisor \u2014 told CNN that he believes implementing some changes to the Technical Authority may be welcome. He noted that NASA may have become too risk averse in the wake of the Columbia tragedy, and the current structure may be hampering innovation.<\/p>\n But, Reisman said, any changes to the space agency\u2019s safety backstops need to be made with extreme care. And currently, he said, he does not trust that will happen.<\/p>\n \u201cI have very little confidence that it will be done the right way,\u201d Reisman, who signed the declaration, said. \u201cSo far, this administration has used a very heavy hand with their attempts to remove bureaucracy \u2014 and what they\u2019ve ended up doing is not making things more efficient, but just eliminating things.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s anti-DEIA efforts<\/p>\n The signatories who spoke to CNN each expressed opposition to President Donald Trump\u2019s directives to shutter Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility \u2014 or DEIA \u2014 initiatives.<\/p>\n At NASA, leadership complied with Trump\u2019s executive order by shuttering a DEIA-focused branch<\/a>, scrubbing pronouns from email signatures<\/a>, and removing references to a pledge made during the president\u2019s previous term to land a woman and person of color on the moon for the first time. The space agency also shuttered employee groups that lent support to minority workers.<\/p>\n The source who spoke with CNN anonymously said that DEIA policies not only ensure a welcoming work environment \u2014 they\u2019re also essential to practicing sound science.<\/p>\n \u201cThe concept of inclusivity being a pathway to better science is something that has become really entrenched in the overall academic and scientific community in the last decade or so,\u201d the source said, adding that the changes \u201cset an immediate tone for the destruction that was going to come.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Indiscriminate cuts\u2019<\/p>\n Among the other policies that the letter decries is the Trump administration\u2019s call for NASA to shutter some projects that have Congressional backing \u2014 a move the signatories say is wasteful and \u201crepresents a permanent loss of capability to the United States both in space and on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n The NASA employee told CNN that leadership has already begun shutting down some facilities that the Trump administration put on the chopping block in its budget proposal, despite the fact that Congress appears poised to continue funding some of them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve also been hearing repeatedly passed down from every level of management: No one is coming to save you; Congress is not coming to save you,\u201d the source said. \u201cBut it seems like Congress is moving towards an appropriations that\u2019s going to continue to fund our projects at approximately the same level.\u201d<\/p>\n The source noted that they have first-hand knowledge of leadership beginning to decommission a clean room \u2014 a facility free of dust and debris where sensitive hardware and science instruments must be prepared for spaceflight \u2014 despite the fact that there are ongoing tests happening at the facility.<\/p>\n The Voyager Declaration also criticizes what it refers to as \u201cindiscriminate cuts\u201d planned for the agency.<\/p>\n The White House\u2019s proposal to slash NASA\u2019s science budget by as much as half has been met with widespread condemnation from stakeholders who say such cuts threaten to cripple US leadership in the field.<\/p>\n Recent agency communication to staff has also noted that at least 3,000 staff members are taking deferred resignation offers, according to an internal memo, the authenticity of which was confirmed to CNN by two sources who had seen the communication.<\/p>\n Broader workforce cuts could also be on the horizon. NASA leadership under Petro also worked on an agency restructuring plan, though the details of that initiative have not yet been made public.<\/p>\n Other Trump-era changes denounced in the Voyager Declaration include directives to cancel contracts and grants that affect private-sector workers across the country and plans to pull the space agency out of some projects with international partners. The White House budget proposal calls for defunding dozens of projects, including the Lunar Gateway space station that the US would have worked on with space agencies in Canada, Europe, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n The letter and its signatories argue these policies are wasteful, squandering investments that have been years or decades in the making.<\/p>\n \u201cAmerican taxpayers have invested a lot of money in my education and training directly,\u201d the Goddard source said. \u201cI\u2019m in it for the public service \u2014 and I want to return that investment to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Note: This story has been updated to include additional details about Sean Duffy\u2019s professional history.<\/p>\n![\"NASA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/7fec4841e5b2e5d79f416e8d5813b307.jpeg\"\/)
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