NASA to transfer 7,500 contractors to US civil servant workforce — Ars Technica
NASA in the United States is transferring 7,500 contract workers to the federal civil service workforce as part of an initiative to restore the agency’s key in-house capabilities. The decision is being advanced by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, who believes the agency needs to strengthen its own technical personnel capacity.
As Ars Technica reports, the reform most directly affects Amentum, Jacobs Engineering Group, and KBR. They provided NASA with several thousand workers for engineering and other work at the agency’s field centers across the country. Directors of 10 such centers were tasked with identifying contract employees involved in launches, operations, and critical engineering functions who need to be brought into the civil service.
NASA’s arguments
Isaacman said in internal memos that the initiative’s initial pilot stages made it possible to identify more than $100 million in potential savings and that it could eventually exceed $1 billion, in his assessment. According to him, the contract model can create additional management layers, dependence on third-party tools, and contractual barriers that complicate work.
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An engineer on Isaacman’s team cited work on the Artemis II launch as an example: when there was a problem with the rocket’s ground systems at the launch pad, NASA controllers did not have direct access to schematics because of intellectual property rules and contractor restrictions. The information had to be relayed through screen sharing in Microsoft Teams. The purpose of the personnel reform is to transfer key functions at critical NASA facilities to civil servants in order to remove such obstacles.
Contractors’ objections
Industry representatives criticize the pace and scale of the transition. They believe the previous system gave NASA more flexibility: the agency could choose not to renew a contract if priorities changed, while civil servants have much stronger protections after being hired. Companies also dispute the savings estimates, saying their overhead costs amount to approximately 2–3% of an employee’s compensation.
Before the initiative was launched, NASA had about 40,000 contractors and 14,000 civil servants. According to the publication, the agency now has approximately 21,000 civil servants. At the end of August, the independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel said the reform had made “substantial progress” and found no critical safety issues. Panel chair Susan J. Helms called the administrator’s directive a “coherent and necessary vision” for NASA’s future workforce.
