New York – NASA -in Institute for Space Studies Goddard stood at a corner of Manhattan near the Columbia University Campus since 1966.
Institute, called Gis Briefly, shares a building with Tom’s restaurantDinner known with his regular appearance on the hit sitcom “Seinfeld.” While George and Jerry talked about their lives with coffee, scientists were two floors busy with the development of the probes for NASA Travel program and the analysis of the composition Earth’s atmosphere.
But thanks to the Trump administration of the Government Efficiency Department, led by Spacex Executive Director Elon Musk, everything that is nearing its end. In April employees of GISS the word received that their office closed as part of the last round of the federal federal funding of the administration. They had until May 31 to move completely from the Broadway Institute’s Office and West 112.
“This is NASA’s attack,” said Matt Briggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) – the largest NASA union – said on Tuesday (May 27) for Space.com during a press conference outside the GISS office. IFPTE represents 8,000 NASA scientists and engineers, including a number in GISS.
The air at a press conference was dark. We stood on the sidewalk in front of the Armstrong Hall, the Columbia building with Giss. As reporters approached, a few long -lasting GISS employees scattered. Later, we were told that they were sent to them not to talk to the press on the threat that they would lose their jobs.
“As part of the Government’s administrative review throughout the Government to increase efficiency, NASA cancels the lease of Armstrong Hall of Columbia University in New York, the House of the Texte Studies Institute of the Year,” NASA spokesman said in a statement by e-mail at Space.com. “Over the next few months, employees will be placed on temporary remote agreements, while NASA is seeking and assessing the opportunities for a new space for the GISS team.”
But critics point out that the closure of the office will not really save the agency a lot of money. NASA has already signed a lease of $ 3 million a year on the building by 2031, and cannot be submitted by the space to external parties. These dollars ultimately come from taxpayers. “That doesn’t make a fiscal sense,” Briggs said.
In addition to financial waste, closing it makes little sense from a research perspective. Giss has a starred scientific genera who returns for decades. In 1966 he hosted a meeting that was born The theory of the Tectonic Ploče. The GISS staff worked on the NASA -and historical Mariner 5 instruments, Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager missions. (Voyagers 1 and 2, launched in 1977, are now exploring the interstellar space.)
There is also a facility in the facility Climate change records Since the 1880s, his scientists have been involved in modeling potential floods in New York, which became invaluable during Hurricane Sandy 2012.
While Briggs spoke, the triggers started with wheels with stickers like the “long -term storage library” next to us. Some were related to storage at the Columbia campus, while others are likely to be shipped to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. But it is not clear whether all the files – both physical and digital – will end up in these locations in GISS.
Photos obtained by Space.com show the interior of the building. Conference rooms are empty. Several neon sticky notes, left by employees, Speckle A Logotype NASA -e. They were written oath that the researchers were taken after becoming civil servants, according to one member of the IFPTE who asked not to name it.
Briggs sees the closure as part of the current attack of Trump administration on both science and higher ed. Colombia was particularly singled out 400 million dollars of federal scholarships from the institution in March. But Briggs and IFPTE have no intention of throwing a towel. Their next move is the request of the Congress MP to explicitly enroll in Giss funds in the proposal of the Law on Approved Funds.
“What we are trying to do is make the congress to do your job and protect this place,” Briggs said.
Source link
Space Exploration , , #biggest #Union #Nasa #attack #close #scientific #institutes, #biggest #Union #Nasa #attack #close #scientific #institutes, 1748453816, the-biggest-union-of-nasa-e-says-it-is-a-attack-to-close-scientific-institutes