NASA loses another senior official as tension about the agency's future grows
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The departures are playing out as NASA and other government agencies contend with significant cuts to funding and personnel.

The director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center announced her resignation Monday, marking yet another high-profile departure as questions loom about the agency’s budget and future.

Makenzie Lystrup, who has served as director of the center in Maryland since April 2023, will leave the agency on Aug. 1, according to a NASA statement.

Lystrup’s resignation comes less than two months after Laurie Leshin stepped down as director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

…more than 280 current and former NASA employees signed a letter to Sean Duffy, NASA’s interim administrator, stating that the Trump administration’s recent policies “have or threaten to waste public resources, compromise human safety, weaken national security, and undermine the core NASA mission.”

The agency did not provide a reason for Lystrup’s resignation.

NASA said Monday that Cynthia Simmons, Goddard’s deputy director, will take over as acting center director in August.