JPL to Lay Off 530 Workers Amid Mars Project’s Funding Uncertainty

Facing a possible cut in funding from Congress, the Pasadena laboratory scaled back a mission to fetch samples from the red planet.

Engineers and technicians examine part of the Mars 2020 spacecraft at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., on Dec. 27, 2019. Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

In a dramatic cost-cutting measure, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will lay off 530 people, about 8 percent of lab staffing.

JPL Director Laurie Leshin informed workers Feb. 6, saying in a memo that the cuts “are among the most challenging that we have had to make.”