NASA asking employees to voluntarily work from home amid coronavirus concerns

Not even NASA is immune to concerns over the coronavirus.

Starting Friday, the agency is asking employees on the Space Coast and around the county to voluntarily work from home. It's part of a test of NASA's "telework" system, which allows employees to work from home, or anywhere.

Working from home has long been an option for NASA employees, but as of Friday NASA is asking employees agencywide to, on a volunteer basis, work from home to test the limits of its telework system.

“People are aware the coronavirus is going on out there. So, here’s an opportunity for us to keep people at home because things are still fluid with the situation,” said Derrick Matthews, NASA Public Affairs officer. “We have an opportunity to leverage our virtual private network, our telework system.”

The Kennedy Space Center on the Space Coast has more than 2,000 federal employees alone.

“We want to protect our people. Safety is our No. 1 goal here at NASA,” Matthews said. “People come first.”

The test won’t impact already scheduled activities like Saturday’s commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station.