NASA Furloughs Rescinded

SAM SAVELL

THE SIGNAL

The local aeronautics community headed back to work Oct. 17 after Congress ended a 16-day shutdown by passing a bill that temporarily raised the national debt ceiling.

NASA and its affiliates were among the largest group impacted during the shutdown, scrubbing all activity except that related to keeping current U.S. astronauts in orbit.

The compromise deal allows for the government to be funded until Jan. 15. This means previously furloughed employees are back at work in the space community, and NASA is keeping up with their itinerary of missions to complete before the next budget deadline.

Missions are still on schedule for NASA after the shutdown. Plans are being upheld to re-arrange crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS), introduce three new astronauts to the ISS, and launch a satellite to Mars- all set to happen in November.

NASA opened as a government agency Oct. 1, 1958. In celebration of its 55th anniversary to the date, it was forced to close and furlough approximately 97 percent of its employees.

During the 16 days of shutdown, federal employees endured the insecurity of not knowing when they would receive another paycheck or be able to return to work. Outside NASA, furloughed employees stood together to inform the public on how they could return to space.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a federal government labor union, rallied outside of Johnson Space Center (JSC), the morning of Oct. 14. AFGE members, comprised of JSC employees and other furloughed government employees in the local area, held signs to enlist the help of the Clear Lake public so they could get back to work.

AFGE’s goal was to get the public to speak to their congressmen or congresswomen and push them to bring the bill to the floor and reopen the government.

“The holidays are coming up and people shouldn’t be out of work,” exclaimed Bridget Broussard-Guidry, president of AFGE-local 2284 at NASA JSC, during the protest. “They put us under pressure and our kids simply don’t understand what’s going on.”

Compromise from Congress was met a few days after the protest on Oct. 16, with only a couple of hours to spare before the nation went into default.

Employees contracted by NASA were also affected by the shutdown, although contracted jobs are funded by the agency before being started. Contractors working on JSC property were also furloughed and were not guaranteed back pay for the time off by Congress’ budget agreement.

“I’m afraid that my project won’t receive enough funding next year, and that would place a lot of stress on our work,” said Cody Iven, a contracted employee for NASA.

The information shared by the many researchers, scientists and astronomers at NASA were also halted by the shutdown. Even the JSC archives hosted in the Neumann Library at UHCL could not be accessed.

During the shutdown, NASA closed its website and similar online avenues used to spread the news about scientific research, but tweeters kept the dream of space
exploration alive under the hashtag #ThingsNASAMightTweet.

Keyhole.co, a website that tracks Twitter trends, reports the hashtag brought in more than 15,000 tweets from 4,368 users− from space enthusiasts to astronauts. The common interest tag allowed tweeters to spread news on events, such as the Juno spacecraft flying by Earth on its way to observe Jupiter, which occurred Oct. 9.

Although there have been 17 past government shutdowns, this is the first in which a global online community has taken it upon themselves to uphold what would have otherwise been a federal service. NASA’s return to the Internet was widely received with a new trend:
#WelcomeBackNASA.

With NASA back in operation, projects such as The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution orbiter, or MAVEN, can still meet a launch date of Nov. 18. The new probe headed to Mars will study the atmosphere, but must be launched within a month-long window due to planetary alignment. If this window of time is missed, MAVEN will be delayed until 2016.