Nearly 4,000 employees, or more than 20% of NASA's workforce, have applied to leave the agency, NASA confirmed to CBS News Friday.

About 3,870 employees have applied to depart NASA over two rounds through the Trump administration's deferred resignation program, NASA disclosed.

The deadline for applications to the program is midnight Friday.

With those deferred resignations, NASA's civil servant workforce would shrink from about 18,000 to 14,000 personnel. This figure also includes about 500 employees who were lost through normal attrition, the agency said.

"Safety remains a top priority for our agency as we balance the need to become a more streamlined and more efficient organization and work to ensure we remain fully capable of pursuing a Golden Era of exploration and innovation, including to the Moon and Mars," NASA spokesperson Cheryl Warner said in a statement.

According to NASA, about 870 employees applied to leave during the first round of the Deferred Resignation Program, and about 3,000 employees during the second round.

The deferred resignation program was a buyout program introduced across the federal government by the White House's Department of Government Efficiency at the onset of the Trump administration in an effort to slash costs and reduce the size of the federal workforce.

A White House budget proposal issued in May would see NASA's funding cut by about 25% for fiscal year 2026, from about $24 billion to $18 billion.

NASA has also been roiled by a leadership crisis in recent months. In December, President Trump nominated billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman, a friend of former DOGE head Elon Musk, to serve as NASA's next administrator. Musk's SpaceX has several NASA contracts.

However, in late May, Mr. Trump pulled Isaacman's nomination just ahead of the Senate confirmation vote, which was followed days later by a public fallout between Mr. Trump and Musk.

Earlier this month, the president announced that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy would temporarily lead the agency.

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