The signatories warn that political interference and abrupt budget reductions could jeopardize decades of progress in space exploration, aeronautics and climate science.

At NASA, the past six months under President Donald Trump's administration "have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts" on a diminishing workforce,

Current and former NASA employees have co-signed a declaration protesting changes at the agency that some say pose a grave risk to astronauts.