More than 20% of NASA employees opt to leave agency: US media
CBS News and other media have reported that 3,870 staff, or over 20 percent of NASA's workforce, have applied to leave. The agency employs about 18,000 people.
The reports said the deadline for applications for the deferred resignation program was on Friday.
The Trump administration says NASA will face a 24-percent year-on-year reduction in the budget for the fiscal year that begins in October.
About 360 current and former employees of the agency published an open letter on Monday last week to voice their opposition to the spending cuts.
The "Voyager Declaration" says, "The last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA's workforce."
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Japan Today
6 minutes ago
- Japan Today
SpaceX delivers four astronauts to International Space Station just 15 hours after launch
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying a Dragon capsule with a U.S.-Japanese-Russian crew of four, lifts off from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-A in Cape Canaveral , Fla., on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara) By MARCIA DUNN SpaceX delivered a fresh crew to the International Space Station on Saturday, making the trip in a quick 15 hours. The four U.S., Russian and Japanese astronauts pulled up in their SpaceX capsule after launching from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. They will spend at least six months at the orbiting lab, swapping places with colleagues up there since March. SpaceX will bring those four back as early as Wednesday. Moving in are NASA's Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan's Kimiya Yui and Russia's Oleg Platonov — each of whom had been originally assigned to other missions. Cardman and another astronaut were pulled from a SpaceX flight last year to make room for NASA's two stuck astronauts, Boeing Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose space station stay went from one week to more than nine months. Fincke and Yui had been training for the next Starliner mission. But with Starliner grounded by thruster and other problems until 2026, the two switched to SpaceX. Platonov was bumped from the Soyuz launch lineup a couple of years ago because of an undisclosed illness. Their arrival temporarily puts the space station population at 11. While their taxi flight was speedy by U.S. standards, the Russians hold the record for the fastest trip to the space station — a lightning-fast three hours. On hand for the first launch attempt on Thursday, NASA's new acting administrator, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, met with Roscosmos director general Dmitry Bakanov, an invited guest. The two discussed future collaboration, then left town after thick clouds forced a last-minute delay. 'What we learn on these missions is what's going to get us to the moon and then from the moon to Mars, which is I think the direction that NASA has to be,' Duffy said in a NASA interview. 'There's critical real estate on the moon. We want to claim that real estate for ourselves and our partners.' To save money in light of tight budgets, NASA is looking to increase its space station stays from six months to eight months, a move already adopted by Russia's space agency. SpaceX is close to certifying its Dragon capsules for longer flights, which means the newly launched crew could be up there until April. NASA is also considering smaller crews — three astronauts launching on SpaceX instead of the typical four — to cut costs. As for Starliner, NASA is leaning toward launching the next one with cargo before flying another crew. Engineers are still investigating the thruster failures and helium leaks that bedeviled Starliner following liftoff. Time is running out as NASA looks to abandon the aging space station by 2030. An air leak on the Russian side of the station remains unresolved after years of patching. 'I am not in the least worried' about the leak, which is localized, Platonov said earlier this month. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The Mainichi
36 minutes ago
- The Mainichi
Trump injects a new dose of uncertainty in tariffs as he pushes start date back to Aug. 7
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Trump has promised that his tax increases on the nearly $3 trillion in goods imported to the United States will usher in newfound wealth, launch a cavalcade of new factory jobs, reduce the budget deficits and, simply, get other countries to treat America with more respect. The vast tariffs risk jeopardizing America's global standing as allies feel forced into unfriendly deals. As taxes on the raw materials used by U.S. factories and basic goods, the tariffs also threaten to create new inflationary pressures and hamper economic growth -- concerns the Trump White House has dismissed. Questions swirl around the tariffs despite Trump's eagerness As the clock ticked toward Trump's self-imposed deadline, few things seemed to be settled other than the president's determination to levy the taxes he has talked about for decades. The very legality of the tariffs remains an open question as a U.S. appeals court on Thursday heard arguments on whether Trump had exceeded his authority by declaring an "emergency" under a 1977 law to charge the tariffs, allowing him to avoid congressional approval. Trump was ebullient as much of the world awaited what he would do. "Tariffs are making America GREAT & RICH Again," he said Thursday morning on Truth Social. Others saw a policy carelessly constructed by the U.S. president, one that could impose harms gradually over time that would erode America's power and prosperity. "The only things we'll know for sure on Friday morning are that growth-sapping U.S. import taxes will be historically high and complex, and that, because these deals are so vague and unfinished, policy uncertainty will remain very elevated," said Scott Lincicome, a vice president of economics at the Cato Institute. "The rest is very much TBD." The new tariffs build off ones announced in the spring Trump initially imposed the Friday deadline after his previous "Liberation Day" tariffs in April resulted in a stock market panic. His unusually high tariff rates announced then led to recession fears, prompting Trump to impose a 90-day negotiating period. When he was unable to create enough trade deals with other countries, he extended the timeline and sent out letters to world leaders that simply listed rates, prompting a slew of hasty agreements. Swiss imports will now be taxed at a higher rate, 39%, than the 31% Trump threatened in April, while Liechtenstein saw its rate slashed from 37% to 15%. Countries not listed in the Thursday night order would be charged a baseline 10% tariff. Trump negotiated trade frameworks over the past few weeks with the EU, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and the Philippines -- allowing the president to claim victories as other nations sought to limit his threat of charging even higher tariff rates. He said Thursday there were agreements with other countries, but he declined to name them. Asked on Friday if countries were happy with the rates set by Trump, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said: "A lot of them are." Thursday began with a palpable sense of tension The EU was awaiting a written agreement on its 15% tariff deal. Switzerland and Norway were among the dozens of countries that did not know what their tariff rate would be, while Trump agreed after a Thursday morning phone call to keep Mexico's tariffs at 25% for a 90-day negotiating period. The president separately on Thursday amended an order to raise certain tariffs on Canada to 35%. European leaders face blowback for seeming to cave to Trump, even as they insist that this is merely the start of talks and stress the importance of maintaining America's support of Ukraine's fight against Russia. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has already indicated that his country can no longer rely on the U.S. as an ally, and Trump declined to talk to him on Thursday. India, with its 25% tariff announced Wednesday by Trump, may no longer benefit as much from efforts to pivot manufacturing out of China. While the Trump administration has sought to challenge China's manufacturing dominance, it is separately in extended trade talks with that country, which faces a 30% tariff and is charging a 10% retaliatory rate on the U.S. Major companies came into the week warning that tariffs would begin to squeeze them financially. Ford Motor Co. said it anticipated a net $2 billion hit to earnings this year from tariffs. French skincare company Yon-Ka is warning of job freezes, scaled-back investment and rising prices. It's unclear whether Trump's new tariffs will survive a legal challenge Federal judges sounded skeptical Thursday about Trump's use of a 1977 law to declare the long-standing U.S. trade deficit a national emergency that justifies tariffs on almost every country. "You're asking for an unbounded authority," Judge Todd Hughes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit told a Justice Department lawyer representing the administration. The judges didn't immediately rule, and the case is expected to reach the Supreme Court eventually. The Trump White House has pointed to the increase in federal revenues as a sign that the tariffs will reduce the budget deficit, with $127 billion in customs and duties collected so far this year -- about $70 billion more than last year. New tariffs threaten to raise inflation rates There are not yet signs that tariffs will lead to more domestic manufacturing jobs, and Friday's employment report showed the U.S. economy now has 37,000 fewer manufacturing jobs than it did in April. On Thursday, one crucial measure of inflation, known as the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, showed that prices have climbed 2.6% over the 12 months that ended in June, a sign that inflation may be accelerating as the tariffs flow through the economy. The prospect of higher inflation from the tariffs has caused the Federal Reserve to hold off on additional cuts to its benchmark rates, a point of frustration for Trump, who on Truth Social, called Fed Chair Jerome Powell a "TOTAL LOSER." But before Trump's tariffs, Powell seemed to suggest that the tariffs had put the U.S. economy and much of the world into a state of unknowns. "There are many uncertainties left to resolve," Powell told reporters Wednesday. "So, yes, we are learning more and more. It doesn't feel like we're very close to the end of that process. And that's not for us to judge, but it does -- it feels like there's much more to come."
NHK
an hour ago
- NHK
US Fed Governor Kugler to resign, allowing Trump to pick replacement
The US Federal Reserve has announced that its board member, Adriana Kugler, will step down on August 8. President Donald Trump will replace her with his pick. The Fed said on Friday that Kugler will resign and return to a university as a professor this fall. She will have resigned before the end of her term set in January next year. Kugler is one of the seven members of the board of governors. The Fed chair is elected from the board members. US media suggested Trump would take the opportunity to influence the leadership of the central bank. Trump has strongly criticized Fed Chair Jerome Powell over monetary policies, apparently believing he should resign. News outlet Axios reported that Kugler's resignation will give Trump "an early opportunity to appoint a favored candidate for potential leadership of the central bank." Trump spoke to reporters after Kugler's resignation was announced. He said, "I'm very happy" that "I have an open spot on the Federal Reserve Board."
