NASA Targets Cancellation of VIPER, OSAM Programs – IFPTE Weighs In with Congress

Local 29 GESTA Officers, Members Meet with Rep. Ivey on the Future of NASA’s OSAM Program

In light of NASA’s puzzling, yet persistent, interest in canceling the On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1) project, which could impact IFPTE-represented jobs at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, IFPTE met with Congressman Glenn Ivey this week.  The meeting, attended by Goddard Engineers, Scientists, and Technicians Association (GESTA/IFPTE Local 29) President David Williams, Area Vice President Stephen Jordan, and Treasurer Alex Cramer, was to thank Congressman Ivey and his staff for their support for preserving and building on Goddard’s programs and capabilities.

The conversation also included a discussion of NASA’s continued lack of a strategic workforce plan to retain the world-renowned scientific and engineering workers who work on the OSAM program and other programs that NASA has targeted for cancellation, including the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) program based at NASA Ames Research Center in California. 

IFPTE President Matt Biggs, Secretary-Treasurer Gay Henson, and Legislative Director Faraz Khan were also in attendance.  Khan, who has worked closely with Local 29 on this issue, commented, “IFPTE continues to inform Congress that this is a misguided decision by NASA driven by continued cost overruns from NASA’s contractors, not the civilian workforce that stands to be negatively impacted.   We thank Congressman Ivey, and others in the Maryland delegation, including Senator Van Hollen and Congressman Hoyer, for working to save the OSAM program.”   

Separately, IFPTE and AFGE also sent a joint letter this week to Congressional appropriators urging them to reject NASA’s efforts to cancel the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) program.  Read the full letter here.