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Critical operations at NASA, NOAA and EPA continue during shutdown

NASA employees are following a familiar plan in the latest government shutdown.

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By
Tony Rice
NASA employees are following a familiar plan in the latest government shutdown. The plan submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Nov. 30 is vitally unchanged from the one followed during the last shutdown in 2013, which lasted 13 days. The full impact of the shutdown will not be apparent until Monday.

According to an agency-wide email sent last week to NASA employees by acting administrator Robert Lightfoot, employees are to arrive at work as they normally would on Monday where more than 95 percent will receive guidance on how to best close out their activities. Those providing a “minimum level of security, safety, and reliability [for] the preservation of Government assets” will be exempted.

International Space Station ground controllers and other personnel supporting the vehicle at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Texas and supporting science operations from the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Alabama will be expected to continue working. About 5.7 percent and 2.5 percent of employees at JSC and MSFC, respectively, are expected to remain at their consoles to “protect the life of the crew as well as the assets themselves.”

Other “tracking, operation, and support of operating satellites necessary for safety and protection of life and property” are also exempted. Similarly, the 30 of the nearly 2,000 employees of the National Science Foundation will stay behind to support researchers in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Of the 11,400 employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which includes the National Weather Service, about 46 percent are considered necessary to protect life and property. NOAA services, such as weather forecasting, are necessary not just to figure out what jacket to wear this weekend but are critical to aviation, agriculture and fisheries.

Effects of the shutdown extend beyond the government agencies, too. SpaceX’s new Falcon Heavy rocket could be further delayed. “Logistical and safety concerns” have postponed progress on the giant rocket, most recently to clear the range for last night’s launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas V carrying a military missile warning satellite. The furlough could make the Kennedy Space Center personnel who support Launch Pad 39-A unavailable.

The revised plan calls out public access to NASA centers and facilities. All tours and public education events will be canceled. Though it remains available as of Saturday, the NASA Television channel and website is to be shut down according to the plan.

NASA’s educational support is also affected. NASA educators will suspend support activities for teachers and cancel school visits nationwide. If the shutdown continues, next week’s Astronomy Days at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences could be impacted, too. The shutdown plan prevents NASA's Langley Office of Education from participating as planned. Volunteers in the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Ambassador program may not participate either.

Not all government agencies are sticking to their plans

According to the shutdown contingency plan submitted by the Centers for Disease Control, about 61 percent of employees would be furloughed, including those involved in the flu tracking program, but officials said late Friday night that the program would continue.

National parks and monuments, like the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk, plan to shut down as they did in 2013. However, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke began working on a plan days before the shutdown to keep national parks and monuments open during the shutdown without rangers or other staff, leading to confusion across the agency, according to a Washington Post report.
The Environmental Protection Agency's 137 facilities, including the major research center in Research Triangle Park, are expected to “follow their normal work schedule for the week of January 22, 2018," according to Administrator Scott Pruitt. “At this time EPA has sufficient resources to remain open for a limited amount of time in the event of a government shutdown.” No details have been provided on what happens when that funding runs out, but plans submitted by the EPA call for more than 95 percent of workers to be furloughed.

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