Nasa terminates chief scientist role, closes policy office

Nasa is eliminating its chief scientist role and closing down an office that studies policy matters on space and technology, in a round of layoffs affecting 23 employees, the agency said on Monday.

Nasa's acting administrator Janet Petro told employees by email on Monday the Office of the Chief Scientist, the Office of Science, Policy, and Strategy, and the diversity, equity and inclusion branch within the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity would be closed. The email was seen by Reuters.

A Nasa spokesperson confirmed the cuts and said 23 employees would be affected.

The agency has had a chief scientist for decades — except when the post was terminated between 2005 and 2011 — to advise on its missions and areas of space science and astronomy to focus research efforts.

The cuts, part of President Donald Trump's government cost-cutting initiative, will include the departures of Nasa's current chief scientist, Katherine Calvin, as well as Nasa's chief technologist, AC Charania.

Nasa still has an associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, who oversees science-focused missions.

Many of Nasa's 18,000 employees have been anxious over the Trump administration efforts to trim back the federal bureaucracy, which have been spearheaded by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. 

Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, has contracts worth roughly $15 billion with Nasa, according to federal contracting data.

Petro said in the email that Nasa had been actively working with the US Office of Personnel Management to implement Trump's January executive order directing government agencies to reduce and reorganise their workforces

Nasa's policy, diversity and science offices are the latest space-focused units in the U.S. to be affected by Trump and Musk's government efficiency agenda.

Roughly a third of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 25-person Office of Space Commerce, a little-known body heavily relied upon by the space industry, was laid off earlier this month.

However, two officials from that office were allowed to return after pushback from employees and industry groups, according to two people familiar with the moves.

Nasa's associate administrator, Jim Free, who was poised to become acting Nasa administrator pending confirmation of Trump's nominee, retired from the agency last month, while hundreds of agency employees have accepted the Trump administration's buyout proposal, Petro has said.