At 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1, when the federal government shut down due to a lack of appropriations from Congress, NASA began pausing its operations. While the agency has protocols for dealing with a ...

Of more than 18,000 workers employed at NASA, about 82.8% of them would be sent home without pay – or furloughed – during a government shutdown. Even if the government were to shut down, NASA's ...