The number of protesters Tuesday doesn’t come close to the number of people impacted by the shutdown. About 94 percent of the 3,055 federal employees at the Houston center have been out of work since Dec. 22, when the government was shuttered as President Donald Trump held firm on his demand that Congress fund a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
Johnson is home to the nation’s astronaut corps, where human space flight research and training take place. It also is home to the International Space Station’s mission operations and the Orion program. About 200 federal employees still working at Johnson are there primarily to ensure the astronauts aboard the International Space Station stay alive. And they’re not getting paid.