US shutdown slices NASA: 15,000 workers furloughed, but those on Musk, Bezos projects get a pass. Will they be paid?

Donald Trump had already signalled that his administration will use the shutdown to go beyond temporary furloughs and conduct mass layoffs across several federal agencies. On Wednesday, the warning turned real for NASA, which furloughed over 15,000 civil servants following the shutdown. But not everyone has been grounded.

The space agency said that NASA staff and contractors working on Artemis – the moon exploration program that contracts with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin – will stay on the job during the shutdown, reported CNBC, citing internal memos.

The exceptions come amid furlough of hundreds and thousands of workers by the Trump administration across several federal agencies– spanning Education, Commerce, Labour — among others, as per a report by The New York Times.

What NASA said

Although NASA employees working on Artemis will stay on the job, they would only be paid once the shutdown ends, as per the space agency.

Those employees will not be paid “for the duration of the shutdown furlough,” but they should record their time and expect to be paid after the government reopens, NASA Chief Human Capital Officer Kelly Elliott wrote in an email to staffers on Wednesday.

In a separate shutdown memo issued on Monday, NASA’s acting CFO Stephen Shinn reportedly said that the space agency will support “planned operations” of the International Space Station and any satellite mission that “is in the operations phase,” in addition to “Artemis operations during any funding lapse.”

Why the US shutdown?

The US Government officially shut down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday (October 1) after Congress and President Donald Trump failed to reach a funding deal.

Unlike many past shutdown stalemates, the current standoff is not over any policy provision or funding item that the Grand Old Party included in its spending plan. Instead, Democrats are pushing for major additions — over $1 trillion in health care spending and new limits on President Trump’s control over federal funds.