Donald Trump had already signalled that his administration will use the shutdown to go beyond temporary furloughs and conduct mass layoffs across several federal agencies. On Wednesday, the warning turned real for NASA, which furloughed over 15,000 civil servants following the shutdown. But not everyone has been grounded.

The space agency said that NASA staff and contractors working on Artemis – the moon exploration program that contracts with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin – will stay on the job during the shutdown, reported CNBC , citing internal memos.

The exceptions come amid furlough of hundreds and thousands of workers by the Trump administration across several federal agencies– spanning Education, Commerce, Labour — among others, as per a report by The New Yor

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