NASA stops paying us for the rest of the fiscal year

This morning, I got a nice letter from the contracting office at ZIN telling me to stop work immediately, and “cease all efforts” related to the performance of my contract. We are in the middle of successful on-orbit operations collecting actually useful data right now. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever to stop working; I am told someone higher up decided not pay out the balance of an already-approved annual budget, thereby eliminating all of our funding until the fiscal year ends at the end of this month. I don’t know (and don’t want to know) what the details are, or the internal politics and maneuvering, but I am told that everyone working on the contract was given the same notice, so it has nothing to do with me personally—and that everyone at ZIN and NASA-Glenn on our team is fighting to get our resources restored.

I simply point this out so that readers who are interested in our work from other parts of NASA, the government, media, and the public, will know that this kind of thing is going on right now. This only affirms my hunch that The Onion is the only accurate news source any more:

Modernized Space Camp Allows Kids To Simulate Frustration Over Lack Of Funding