Astronaut Twins Urge Washington to Safeguard NASA’s Brain Trust Ahead of Historic Moon Fly-by
Two veterans who have spent a combined 1,000+ days off-planet warn that looming staffing cuts could stall America’s next leap into deep space
Only eight people alive can say they have orbited Earth alongside their identical twin. Mark and Scott Kelly make up half that club. Between them they have eight shuttle and station flights, but their biggest concern right now is firmly on the ground: NASA could lose one in five employees if Congress endorses the latest federal belt-tightening plan.
Live from Launch Control—Then a Sudden Throttle-Back
The Kellys took their seats in the Kennedy Space Center auditorium early Thursday, expecting to watch a Falcon 9 lift off toward the International Space Station. Instead, the countdown froze at T-minus two minutes, the launch scrubbed in real time. Minutes later they sat down with CBS Mornings to share their thoughts on what tighter budgets—$3 billion less next fiscal year than previously projected—could mean for the next crew already suited up.
Scott Kelly: “I’ve seen teams shrink before—after shuttle retirement in 2011—and every engineer we lost slowed the next program by months. This feels worse.”
Five flash-points the twins want policymakers to weigh
- Artemis II’s 2025 trajectory depends on an untested life-support upgrade that only 37 technicians currently know how to operate.
- Around 800 flight surgeons and biomedical planners face pink slips, putting the twin-study follow-up on hold—and Mars mission health standards along with it.
- The commercial cargo contract that keeps the station supplied will be rebid next summer. Smaller proposal teams at NASA could hand leverage to foreign bidders.
- Two research aircraft used to calibrate lunar-return navigation are parked in hangars slated for closure.
- Ninety-three percent of the Johnson Space Center’s trajectory analysts are eligible for early-outs; losing them could delay Artemis II’s mission planning computer models by over a year.
On Capitol Hill: “We Can’t Outsource Institutional Memory”
Fresh off a red-eye from Phoenix, Senator Mark Kelly—now the only sitting member to have commanded a space shuttle—has drafted a bipartisan proposal with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, performing double duty as acting NASA Administrator after Jared Isaacman’s surprise withdrawal. Their talking points:
- Create an aerospace talent exchange that loans NASA engineers to private contractors for fixed tours rather than eliminating positions outright.
- Mandate no net-loss audits: any department that sheds more than five percent of staff must prove critical skills remain in-house or under contract.
- Cap NASA contracting overhead at 15 %, funneling savings into personnel retention bonuses.
- Fast-track green cards for veteran international scientists already inside the gate—some trained on the Kelly twin-study data.
“Innovation isn’t just rockets,” Sen. Kelly told cameras. “It’s the quiet brainpower stacking memos at 2 a.m. so missions stay on schedule.”
What the Moon Flight Means to the Workforce Watching It
Artemis II’s ten-day free-return lunar loop has been circled on calendars since 2020. Commander Reid Wiseman and his three crewmates will use heat-shield tiles baked by technicians whose jobs hang in the balance. One technician, speaking anonymously, said she’s already printing backup résumés: “I love this program, but rent waits for no launch window.”
Scott, still limber from his year-in-space mission that ended in 2016, likens the situation to a countdown with unknown holds: “You can scrub for weather. You can’t scrub for talent walking out the door.”
A Private Sector Can’t Replace a Public Backbone, Say Twins
While Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin build next-generation landers, the Kellys stress that systems integration, mission control culture, and human-factors know-how belong to federal employees who’ve refined them over decades. Mark noted that during his final shuttle flight, a last-minute cooling-pump failure required an obscure 1982 procedure only two Johnson engineers remembered.
“Private companies do excellent hardware,” the senator said. “But when an alarm screams at the 180-second mark, you need the person who wrote the code, knows the wiring, and trained the crew—all sitting in the same room. That’s not on any balance sheet.”
Clock Ticks Toward a Decision
The Senate Appropriations Committee votes on NASA’s revised budget in two weeks. Until then, employees across ten centers refresh their inboxes each morning for voluntary-departure offers.
Meanwhile, a backup Falcon 9 stands vertical for another try early Saturday. If liftoff holds, the ISS crew awaiting fresh groceries includes American Don Pettit, who once interned under a rookie engineer named Mark Kelly. The circle of mentorship, the twins argue, is what budgets must protect more than any single launch date.
Mark Kelly: “We are still a nation that dares mighty things. Just don’t make us dare them short-handed.”
SpaceX Crew Dragon flight
Next Launch Waves NASA’s Starliner Troubles into Orbit
Who’s Riding This Time
Three of the four seats became suddenly available after Boeing’s Starliner program hit fresh setbacks last year; NASA scrambled, re-shuffled, and filled them with proven hands:
Their ride home? Still TBD– SpaceX has yet to stamp a return date on the manifest.
Echoes of Endeavour
“Mike and my brother and I trained together back in ’96. Now, 14 years after Endeavour glided to its last touchdown, he’s strapping in again,”
Mark Kelly said, laughing off a twinge of jealousy.
“Zero to 17,500 miles an hour in eight minutes, then kiss the station—hard to top that rush.”
The Silence 250 Miles Up
Scott Kelly knows the view, but remembers the distance more.
“Earth spins on beneath you—clouds, oceans, family—and you’re just over the hill in every direction,” he reflected. “The toughest part is missing every smell, every raindrop, every birthday hug you left behind.”
