Lawmakers call on NASA inspector general to investigate Goddard Space Flight Center as agency defends campus closures: Exclusive

A series of white buildings are seen on a hillside with a parking lot full of cars in the front. One of the buildings has the blue NASA meatball logo on it.

The fight over NASA's premier center for space and Earth sciences trudges on, as lawmakers on Capitol Hill call for a formal investigation into the closing of critical campus facilities during the government shutdown.

In a letter sent today (Nov. 21), Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a top Democrat on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, and 15 other members of Congress, ask NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) to begin an audit into ongoing lab closures and relocations at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, that began in September. The letter cites past Space.com reporting and NASA employee accounts that assert NASA's actions are causing irreparable harm to critical projects and are crippling the center's ability to fulfill its mission.