Nearly 40 percent of the 18,146 people at NASA are age 50 or older, according to Florida Today, leaving the agency “ill prepared for a bold future in space exploration.” Another 22 percent of NASA’s workers are age 55 or older, and employees over 60 outnumber those under 30 by a ratio of about 3 to 1.
In the 1960s–during the moon-landing work–going to work at NASA had the lure of a job in Silicon Valley. Now, private-sector jobs are seen as offering better wages, and interest in federal service is declining.