NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is preparing to lay off hundreds of employees this week, director Laurie Leshin said in a memo to staff sent Tuesday afternoon.
The La Cañada Flintridge research institution will let go of approximately 325 employees across the organization on Wednesday, or roughly 5% of its total staff, the memo stated.
“With lower budgets and based on the forecasted work ahead, we had to tighten our belts across the board,” Leshin wrote. “This is a message I had hoped not to have to write.”
This is the third round of layoffs at JPL this year, a reduction spurred primarily by major budgetary cuts to the Mars Sample Return mission, which is managed by JPL.
NASA directed $310 million this year to the effort to bring Mars rocks back to Earth, a steep drop from the $822.3 million it spent on the program the previous year.
In January, 100 on-site contractors at JPL were let go after NASA instructed the lab to reduce spending in anticipation of a much tighter budget. In February, the lab laid off 530 employees — approximately 8% of its workforce — and another 40 contractors.