NASA’s workforce is undergoing one of its largest reductions in decades, with nearly 4,000 employees choosing to resign through a deferred departure program backed by the Trump administration.

Around 3,870 individuals are expected to depart the agency but that number could change in the coming days, a NASA spokesperson said on Friday

Almost 4,000 NASA employees have volunteered to leave their positions through two Trump administration separation programs. Officials at Marshall Space Flight Center are unsure how many of those employees work in Huntsville.

More than 200 current and former NASA employees have signed an open letter known as the Voyager Declaration pushing back on "harmful" proposed cuts.

NASA faces significant upheaval as nearly 20% of its workforce departs following funding cuts under the Trump administration's downsizing plan. The Deferred Resignation Program, intended to streamline the agency,

The Trump administration's return has initiated a significant downsizing at NASA, with 3,900 employees set to leave. Despite this, the agency remains focused on ambitious lunar and Martian missions, aiming to outpace China in the space race.

President Donald Trump recommended Congress cut funding to NASA’s Katherine Johnson Independent Verification & Validation Facility in Fairmont by two thirds. NASA’s 2026 discretionary budget request takes the IV&V facility’s budget from $43 million to $13 million.

The head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, has arrived in Houston for talks with the interim head of NASA, Sean Duffy - the first in-person meeting at the agencies' heads level since 2018,