NASA’s Jim Free Retires as the Agency Escapes Dramatic Workforce Cuts for Now

NASA so far has been spared the dramatic workforce cutbacks affecting other parts of the government. The agency said today they are validating the “hundreds” of employees who chose deferred resignation and those on probationary status will be gone by the end of the week, but anticipated dismissals of other probationary employees apparently are on hold. At the same time, NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free is one of the top NASA officials who have chosen to retire.

Media outlets reported yesterday that probationary workers — those in their jobs for less than one year or in some cases two — would be dismissed imminently at headquarters and NASA’s civil servant field centers around the country. Ars Technica estimated 10 percent of the NASA workforce would be gone by close of business Tuesday.

But the workforce cuts didn’t materialize. By late Tuesday afternoon, Ars issued an update to say the White House changed its mind for reasons that were “not immediately clear.”

When all of these rumors were circulating yesterday, NASA officially would say only that “NASA is complying with the guidance and direction provided by OPM. It’s premature to discuss the impact to our agency, at this time.”  OPM is the Office of Personnel Management.

Today, the agency issued a more complete statement.

“NASA continues to work as quickly as possible to comply with the guidance and direction provided by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) for the Deferred Resignation Program and probationary employees. The agency is in the process of validating hundreds of employees who responded to the deferred resignation offer before the deadline. Some probationary employees have taken the deferred resignation offer and those individuals have been, or will be, on administrative leave by the end of this week. NASA is working with OPM on exemptions for those in the probationary period in mission critical functions.” — NASA

The message reflects one moment in time. What will happen in ensuing days is anyone’s guess as Elon Musk’s DOGE, officially the Department of Government Efficiency, marches through one government agency after another firing federal workers in the name of reducing the size of government. The situation could change at any time.

Also today, NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free announced he will retire on Saturday. He was the top civil servant at NASA on January 20 when the Trump Administration took office and was expected to serve as Acting Administrator until a new Administrator was confirmed. In what was described as a surprise to both of them, the White House named Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro as Acting Administrator instead.

Free started with NASA in 1990 and rose to become Director of Glenn Research Center. He left the agency in 2017, but returned in 2021 to lead the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, which manages the Artemis Moon-to-Mars program. He moved up to Associate Administrator after Bob Cabana retired at the end of 2023.

Reuters reported that three top officials at Marshall Space Flight Center also are leaving: the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Information Office, and the head of procurement.

And the CFO, CIO and top procurement official at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center had their retirements announced yesterday, according to a person familiar. Story being updated here: https://t.co/oh7q7vnQdy

— Joey Roulette (@joroulette) February 19, 2025

In addition to its Washington, D.C. headquarters, NASA has nine civil servant field centers and one Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC).

The nine field centers are spread across the United States and together with headquarters employ about 18,000 civil servants.

• Ames Research Center (Mountain View, CA);
• Armstrong Flight Research Center (Palmdale, CA, formerly Dryden Flight Research Center);
• Glenn Research Center (Cleveland, OH, formerly Lewis Research Center);
• Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, MD), which also operates Wallops Flight Facility (Wallops Island, VA), the Goddard Institute of Space Studies (New York, NY) and the Independent Verification and Validation facility in Fairmont, WV ;
• Langley Research Center (Langley, VA);
• Johnson Space Center (Houston, TX), which also operates White Sands Test Facility (White Sands, NM);
• Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral, FL);
• Marshall Space Flight Center (Huntsville, AL), which also operates the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, Louisiana; and
• Stennis Space Center (near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi)

The FFRDC is the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Operated for NASA by the California Institute of Technology, NASA does not have direct control over JPL’s workforce, but the amount of funding it provides for JPL programs affects the number of employees. JPL already has had two rounds of layoffs because of changes to the Mars Sample Return mission and other science programs managed at JPL.

The Centers have broad responsibilities, but generally Goddard and JPL focus on space and earth science; Ames and Armstrong on aeronautics; Glenn and Langley on technology development; and Johnson, Kennedy, Marshall and Stennis on human spaceflight.