how many people work at NASA?

Question

Any numbers from the past 20 years would be acceptable.

Answer 1

I don't have an accurate number because working for NASA is sort of a vague question. NASA has moved over to a contracting model in the last 20 years rather than having civil servants doing all the work. So most of "NASA" is really contractor companies (like Boeing and Lockheed). But if I were to guess, I'd say that nation wide it's about 50,000 (including contractors working "directly" on space related projects).

Answer 2

Well, I don't anymore--though I enjoyed my experience with them. Employment with NASA has a lot of great benefits, but budget cuts make staying employed something of a crap-shoot unless you're VERY senior. Most NASA research is "farmed out" to universities with their armies of eager grad students looking for funding (which is a LOT cheaper than employing large numbers of scientists in some research division somewhere).

So, how many people do work at NASA? I suggest you email them, and ask them. They'll be happy to assist you. But be sure you ask them if you mean science/engineering people, business people, PR people, administrative workers, etc. Who do you wish to know about??