NASA Employees Protest Cuts In Formal Dissent Letter

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Life Sciences, Wnyc, Science, Earth Sciences, Natural Sciences, Friday

4.5 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Retired astronaut Cady Coleman explains why she felt compelled to sign “The Voyager Declaration.”

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, it's Flora Lichtenen, and you're listening to Science Friday.
0:06.7	Today in the show, the Trump administration is eyeing big changes at NASA, and some current and former employees are speaking out.
0:15.6	I'm hoping that this letter helps people understand that discovery and invention and exploration is not a faucet that you can turn on and off.
0:29.7	Policy changes and staff and budget cuts instituted by the Trump administration have upended the
0:35.8	operations of many federal agencies, and NASA is no exception. The Trump administration have upended the operations of many federal agencies, and NASA is no
0:40.1	exception. The Trump administration has proposed cutting NASA's budget by almost 25 percent and shutting down
0:47.5	19 currently operating science missions. This week, several hundred current and former employees of the space agency
0:56.0	released an official letter of dissent, arguing against, quote, rapid and wasteful changes,
1:02.5	which have undermined our mission. 20 Nobel laureates co-s signed that letter titled the NASA
1:07.9	Voyager Declaration. One of the signatories is also retired NASA astronaut Katie Coleman.
1:14.3	She joins us today to talk about it.
1:16.2	Welcome back to Science Friday, Katie.
1:18.2	Well, thank you.
1:18.9	It's always nice to be with you, Flora.
1:21.0	You all write in this letter that the consequences for the agency
1:24.2	and the country alike are dire.
1:27.4	What is its stake here?
1:29.0	I'd like to say that it is science as we know it.
1:33.4	From a NASA point of view, we do completely unique science
1:37.3	in that we do the science that can only be done from space and in space,
1:43.2	and that can't be done here on the surface of the Earth.
1:46.2	And so, you know, I think of the things that we do and what it takes to do them, both the things
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 10 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Science Friday and WNYC Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Science Friday and WNYC Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.