Above The Earth

Lost in space: Government shutdown hits NASA hard, puts $650 million robot in jeopardy

News_Johnson Space Center_NASA_by Raniero Tazzi

Government shutdown affects thousands of Johnson Space Center employees.

Photo by Raniero Tazzi

While the United States government is shut down, 97 percent of the 18,134 NASA employees are furloughed, making it the United States agency with the highest percentage of employees currently left without work.

With 3,200 NASA personnel working at Johnson Space Center, this represents the most significant way the government shutdown affects the Houston area.

Kelly Humphries, a spokesperson for NASA, says that of the 3,200 civil servants working at Johnson Space Center, only 93 are exempt from the furlough, including those working to maintain operations aboard the International Space Station. Some of these employees, while exempt from the furlough, will not be at Johnson Space Center, but will work from home.

If the shutdown is lengthy, there may not be enough time to make sure that the Mars probe launches on schedule.

Additionally, while most of Houston's NASA civil servants are furloughed during the government shutdown, many will remain on call in case of an emergency.

Due to the government shutdown, even NASA's Internet presence is currently on hold. Everything from NASA's social media accounts to the agency's website are presently shut down. The agency went so far as to say on Twitter that it will no longer be responding to tweets and that all scheduled NASA events are "postponed or canceled until further notice."

One of the most significant problems caused by the NASA furlough is with the MAVEN probe, which is scheduled to be launched between Nov. 18 and Dec. 7 of this year. The probe, a $650 million robotic explorer, is designed to enter Mars' orbit and study the planet's atmosphere. During the shutdown, personnel working on the MAVEN project are considered as "nonessential" and have been furloughed.

If the shutdown is lengthy, there may not be enough time to make sure that the probe launches on schedule. If that is the case, the probe will be stored until the next launch window, which would delay the MAVEN launch until 2016.

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income analysis

Texas families need to make this much money for one parent to stay home

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

With costs to raise a child soaring over $20,000 a year in Texas, some households might decide to have one parent work while the other stays at home to raise their child.

As the cost of raising a child balloons in major cities like Houston, many families are weighing the choice between paying for child care or having one parent stay home full-time.

A recent analysis from SmartAsset determined the minimum income one parent needs to earn to support their partner staying at home to raise one child in all 50 states. In Texas — not just Houston — that amount is just under $75,000.

The study used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the annual living wages needed for a household with two working adults and one child, and a household with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child. The study also calculated how much it would cost to raise a child with two working parents based on factors such as "food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, incremental income taxes and other necessities."

A Texas household with one working parent would need to earn $74,734 a year to support a stay-at-home partner and a child, the report found. If two parents worked in the household, necessitating some additional costs like childcare and transportation, it would require an additional $10,504 in annual income to raise their child.

SmartAsset said the cost to raise a child in Texas in a two-working-parent household adds up to $23,587. Raising a child in Houston, however, is somewhat more affordable. A separate SmartAsset study from June 2025 determined it costs $21,868 to raise a child in the Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro.

In the report's ranking of states with the highest minimum income needed to support a family with one working adult, a stay-at-home parent, and one child, Texas ranked 32nd on the list.

In other states like Massachusetts, where raising a child can cost more than $40,000 a year, the report acknowledges ways families are working to reduce any financial burdens.

"This often includes considerations around who’s going to work in the household, and whether young children will require paid daycare services while parents are occupied," the report said. "With tradeoffs abound, many parents might seek to understand the minimum income needed to keep the family afloat while allowing the other parent to stay home to raise a young child."

The top 10 states with the lowest minimum income threshold to support a three-person family on one income are:

West Virginia – $68,099
Arkansas – $68,141
Mississippi – $70,242
Kentucky – $70,408
North Dakota – $70,949
Oklahoma – $71,718
Ohio – $72,114
South Dakota – $72,218
Alabama – $72,238
Nebraska – $72,966

texas income smartasset family

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income analysis

Texas families need to make this much money for one parent to stay home