So these were irreplaceable people? Nobody else can possibly launch a balloon?
No such thing.
You are swallowing the media hype. The management can fix it - should have done it by now if they are any good. They just want (and got) your sympathy vote.
I’m sure they’ll adjust.
In the meantime the interest alone on US federal debt is over a trillion dollars per year. Don’t you wish you had that to waste on NOAA? And DOGE seems to be finding federal funds wasted everywhere they look. Don’t you want them to keep doing that? $160 billion is such a small amount of savings for half a dozen guys in 100 days.
Stop sweating the small stuff. Let managers manage on their new budget.
BTW can you possibly imagine why cutting staff started with probationaries? I can. And how come probationaries were doing such important, irreplaceable jobs?