NASA employees express their opposition to the agency's direction under President Donald Trump in a letter.

NASA employees and current employees published a formal dissent letter on Monday addressed to the space agency's acting administrator, Sean Duffy , recently appointed by the Trump administration , in which they asked that the government's proposed cuts not be implemented, denouncing them as "arbitrary."

"We are compelled to speak out when our leaders prioritize political momentum over human security, scientific advancement, and the efficient use of public resources," reads the letter published on the website of the Stand Up for Science platform.

"These cuts are arbitrary and have been enacted in violation of Congress's appropriations law. The consequences for the agency and the country are dire," he added.

The letter is signed by 287 people who work or have worked at NASA and are concerned about the direction the Trump administration is taking with the space agency.

Trump proposed a $6 billion cut to NASA's annual budget for fiscal year 2026 , which would represent a decrease of nearly 25%. In March, NASA also announced the dismissal of its chief scientist, Katherine Calvin .

On July 10, Trump appointed Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as acting administrator of the agency. NASA's priorities are also expected to shift from research-focused missions to human exploration .

The signatories of the so-called Voyager Declaration —named after the two probes currently exploring interstellar space—disagreed with these and other points, including "the closure of missions for which Congress has allocated funding" and "the cancellation of NASA's participation in international missions."

The letter also lamented NASA's termination of contracts and grants "for reasons unrelated to performance," lamenting that it would reduce the number of employees, and denounced a culture of silence within the space agency unseen in the past two decades.

This letter follows similar letters from employees of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and workers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) criticizing the Trump administration.

A formal dissent letter is NASA's official process for employees to express their disagreement in cases "of sufficient importance" to warrant review by agency management.