Makenzie Lystrup will leave as director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on August 1 after overseeing 8,000 staff and a $4.7 billion budget. Goddard is NASA's largest field center, focusing on scientific research and robotic space mission development. Cynthia Simmons will serve as acting chief following Lystrup's departure. The timing of the announcement coincided with an open letter, the "Voyager Declaration," signed by hundreds of current and former employees expressing dissent regarding the agency's situation under the Trump administration.
NASA announced that Makenzie Lystrup will leave her post as director of the Goddard Space Flight Center on Friday, August 1. Lystrup has held the top job at Goddard since April 2023, overseeing a staff of more than 8,000 civil servants and contractor employees, and a budget last year of about $4.7 billion.
Cynthia Simmons, Goddard's deputy director, will take over as acting chief at the space center. Simmons started work at Goddard as a contract engineer 25 years ago.
The announcement of Lystrup's departure from Goddard came hours after the release of an open letter to NASA's interim administrator, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, signed by hundreds of current and former agency employees.
Lystrup came to NASA from Ball Aerospace, now part of BAE Systems, where she managed the company's work on civilian space projects for NASA and other federal agencies.
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