NASA’s actual workforce is actually roughly 25% civil servants and 75% contractors. The 25% civil servants make up the 18,000 of which 4,000 jobs are lost. The number of contractors losing their jobs is much higher. Many of these folks are people who are career lifers at NASA, but because of many reasons they were not able to be hired as a civil servant.

yikes. i used to dream of working for nasa and even interned there, but ultimately decided not to. glad i dodged this bullet

During a second round of the program, which closed at midnight Friday, 3,000 employees applied to leave the agency, Warner said, following the 870 employees that applied to leave during the first round.

The cuts amount to an estimated 20% of NASA’s workforce, and will reduce the agency from 18,000 to 14,000 employees

Was surprised at the percentage. I didn’t see the details, and I’m sure they’re capture somewhere – but hopefully the packages are decent enough for those that do take it to either retire with a bit more or take some time to find something else.