The Trump administration will close NASA’s largest research library, located at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, this week.

The library houses tens of thousands of books and documents, including journals and old articles that have not been digitized, according to The New York Times, which first reported on the facility’s Friday closure.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on social media Friday that The Times report did not reflect the “full context” of what the agency shared. The physical library is closing, he said, as part of a planned “facilities consolidation” and researchers will retain access to material they need.

“NASA follows a deliberate process to evaluate materials, ensuring they are digitized, transferred to other libraries, or otherwise preserved for historical purposes,” Isaacman wrote.

In-person library services were already paused, according to the Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians Association, or GESTA, the union for employees at the facility. As of Dec. 9, employees were no longer allowed to check out books.

The union said in an update on its blog that library staff are working on a 60-day review of the collection and have been reportedly been given permission to save the most rare 10%-15% of it, with the remainder to be picked up by the General Services Administration. According to The Times, the federal government will store some of the collection in warehouses, and trash the rest.

Isaacman disputed the characterization that some material would be thrown away in his post on social media. The administrator shared a response that he said the agency originally sent to The New York Times, in which NASA wrote that items in the collection not retained by the space agency will go through the GSA’s disposition process.

“This process is an established method that is used by federal agencies to properly dispose of federally owned property,” the response read.

The GSA process for disposing of personal property includes agencies making material available to state or local governments, selling it to the public or destroying or recycling the material, according to GSA’s website.

The union wrote that employees were told that physical collaboration spaces in the library would close as of Jan. 2, and some “limited” digital subscriptions will remain.

Shuttering the library is just the latest of sudden building closures at the Goddard campus, according to GESTA. The union has detailed multiple laboratory and office building closures, and said some employees and contractors were called in to help vacate buildings during the government shutdown.

Goddard is “NASA’s premiere space flight complex and home to the nation’s largest organization of scientists, engineers, and technologists who build spacecraft, instruments, and new technology to study Earth, the Sun, our solar system, and the universe,” according to its website.

The “unplanned” and “hasty” moves will “result in the loss of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded laboratory facilities, including sophisticated and high-value equipment that will be difficult, if not impossible, to replace,” union officials wrote.

A master plan for the Goddard campus from 2022 calls for the consolidation and demolition of some buildings on the campus, and the construction of new buildings. The Trump administration does not appear to have announced or discussed any plans for new construction.

Changes at the facility have also reduced the workforce by “thousands,” according to Maryland’s congressional delegation. Sen. Chris Van Hollen in a Dec. 15 news conference said employees at Goddard had fallen from more than 10,000 to about 6,600 since January 2025.

It represents a “great loss for Maryland, but really a great loss for the country,” Van Hollen said, as some engineers have moved to Europe for work.

“The Trump administration has really eaten away at American leadership in many areas, including when it comes to space and innovation and exploration,” the senator said.

Rep. Glenn Ivey, whose district includes Goddard, said in the same news conference that hiring freezes and job cuts at NASA have meant new, young talent has been unable to come into the agency and learn from the experts with decades of experience.

“And we’re losing some of the more senior people. … We don’t need another Sputnik moment,” Ivey said, referring to the “shock” of the Soviet Union beating the United States to outer space.

Trump proposed what The Planetary Society called “extinction-level” budget cuts to NASA earlier this year. The agency was also an early target of the Department of Government Efficiency.

While Congress has not passed full appropriations, both the House and the Senate rejected those drastic cuts, according to Space News. The proposed budget would have cut about a third of NASA staff.

Van Hollen conceded that some consolidation on the Goddard campus “needed to happen” because some buildings were vacant, but said the process has been “haphazard” and not done in a “smart” way.

NASA, meanwhile, recently celebrated the completion of the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, which was constructed at Goddard. The space telescope would join the ranks of the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope in sending useful information to Earth daily.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is equipped with a 288-megapixel camera that can view all the way to the edge of the observable universe, according to NASA.

Trump attempted to cancel the project in his first and second administrations. Earlier this year, the president modified his budget request from a complete cancellation of the Roman Space Telescope to a significant cut.

It remains on schedule for launch as early as this fall.

This article has been updated to include comment from NASA.