NASA Is Back To Work, But the Effects of the Government Shutdown Linger

Following a record 35-day government shutdown, thousands of civil servants and contractors are heading back to work this week at NASA's various centers throughout the country. 'These first few days back on the job will be consumed with practical matters, such as figuring out employee backpay and how to dive back into projects,' reports The Verge. 'The shutdown will undoubtedly result in delays for some of NASA's long-term programs, too, but it'll be a while before the space agency can fully assess the extent of the damage.' From the report: To explain how NASA is adjusting in the wake of the shutdown, the space agency's administrator Jim Bridenstine addressed employees during a town hall meeting this afternoon at NASA's headquarters in Washington, DC. 'Welcome to 2019,' he said during the meeting, which was live-streamed on NASATV. 'NASA is now open and we're very thankful for that.' The comment was met by applause from those in attendance, while Bridenstine went on to acknowledge that it's been a rough start to the year for the agency. 'I want to say thank you for your patience and for your commitment to this agency and to the mission we all believe in so dearly.'

Bridenstine told the room that some NASA employees did leave during the shutdown, though it wasn't a substantial amount. 'We didn't have a mass exodus,' he said. 'I think had this gone on longer, we would have. But we did lose people -- onesies and twosies -- across the agency and even here at headquarters. That is absolutely true.' Perhaps those hit hardest at NASA were the agency's contractors. Each company funded by NASA has its own contract with the agency, and the provisions of those agreements differ from contract to contract. Some contractors were paid their funding in advance of the shutdown, allowing them to continue working mostly unfazed. However, the employees of contractors who did not receive funding in advance were unable to bill for the hours that they worked during the shutdown. And it's possible they'll never receive compensation for that time. 'NASA is in the middle of selecting new planetary missions to pursue, as part of its New Frontiers and Discovery programs -- and the shutdown may have delayed that process, says Casey Dreier, chief advocate and senior space policy adviser at The Planetary Society,' reports The Verge. 'Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's associate administrator for science, pushed back the date for when the agency would accept applications for new science research proposals. And there's uncertainty surrounding the new giant rocket NASA is working on to take astronauts to the Moon and beyond, called the Space Launch System.' Boeing told Politico that the shutdown delayed testing of the rocket's hardware.

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