MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS (PIX11) -- About 100 NASA scientists and researchers have been evicted from the Morningside Heights research facility where they worked for decades.
On Tuesday, employees at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies could be seen rolling out boxes of papers and books from the building on West 112th Street off Broadway.
Books that couldn't fit in their cars were laid out on folding tables for members of the general public to take.
The union that represents NASA Rocket Scientists and Engineers says the Trump Administration's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, is to blame.
Matt Biggs, the President of IFPTE, tells PIX11 News the employees are "being thrown out on the street, evicted, they're being evicted from their workspace." Biggs added, "The instructions are coming from NASA headquarters, at the top levels of NASA, but it's really a DOGE-led effort to close this facility."
Biggs said the researchers were told to work from home until further notice, but added "I mean all the equipment is in that building, we don't know how that research is going to get done, plus these researchers and these scientists work together, they collaborate on their science and that's not longer going to occur either."
The research space is where "black hole" and "quasar" were coined. Biggs said, "They do cutting-edge research and it's there at Columbia for a reason, here in New York City for a reason to attract the best and brightest scientists from around the world."
PIX11 News reached out to NASA for comment on why the choice was made and whether there is a new workspace in development.
The building where GISS was located is owned by Columbia University. Despite NASA workers leaving, the federal government's General Services Administration has a $3 million a year lease with the University through August of 2031.
English (US) ·