As part of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration’s transformation — the “vision for space
exploration” announced by President Bush at the
beginning of last year — the agency plans to shed some
2,673 civil service positions.
The International Federation of Professional and
Technical Engineers, which represents thousands of NASA
employees, has sent a letter to House Science Committee
chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., and ranking member
Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., asking them to prevent the loss
those positions – about 15 percent of NASA’s civil
service workforce – via the fiscal 2006 authorization
bill.
NASA said the “vision for space exploration” is designed
to drive an agency transformation to advance security,
economic and scientific interests, and recapped last
December that throughout 2004 it had formed four
mission directorates to manage agency operations —
for Exploration Systems, Space Operations, Science
and Aeronautic Research.
The agency also established mission support offices
such as the independent technical authority and said
it was streamlining and creating a framework to
establish clear authority and accountability.
