NASA to convert 7,500 contractor jobs into civil servant roles

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is bringing 7,500 contract positions back into the agency and making them civil servants, Ars Technica reported. The change is part of what Isaacman calls a "workforce initiative." He says it will rebuild NASA's "core competencies." Ars Technica reported the move has largely gone under the radar.

Gerry Griffin, a flight director during NASA's Apollo missions who later directed Johnson Space Center in Houston, said he welcomes the change. "I applaud Jared's idea to get back to that kind of in-house capability and responsibility," Griffin said. He said that during the Apollo era, contractors supplemented NASA's workforce, but Mission Control positions remained NASA jobs.

Griffin said that midway through the space shuttle era, he was surprised to find many Mission Control jobs had gone to contractors. He said critical jobs were outsourced over time, often to increase headcount without raising the civil service count. Griffin said contractors play a critical role in extending the agency's expertise for subsystems built for NASA.

Not everyone supports the initiative. Critics told Ars Technica it was rolled out too hastily and has been disruptive at the space agency. Ars Technica reported that because the change is largely already done, almost no one has wanted to oppose it on record.

The largest and most directly affected contractors are Amentum, Jacobs Engineering Group and KBR, according to Ars Technica. Each firm provided a few thousand contractors for engineering and other services at NASA field centers across the country. The companies say departing from a workforce model that has allowed NASA to succeed for decades introduces uncertainty. They say this comes as the agency returns to the Moon and builds a base there.