Workers at NASA's Johnson Space Center brace for missing paycheck Friday

A NASA Tram Tour is shown at Rocket Park, 1601 NASA Road 1, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018, in Houston. The tour is operated by the Space Center Houston which will remains open during the government shutdown. Space Center Houston is the official visitor center of NASA Johnson Space Center, but is owned and operated by a separate nonprofit organization. ( Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle ) less A NASA Tram Tour is shown at Rocket Park, 1601 NASA Road 1, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018, in Houston. The tour is operated by the Space Center Houston which will remains open during the government shutdown. Space ... more Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Houston Chronicle Photo: Melissa Phillip, Houston Chronicle / Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Workers at NASA's Johnson Space Center brace for missing paycheck Friday 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

NASA engineer Holly Griffith can hardly stomach the thought of borrowing money as she braces for a missed paycheck Friday courtesy of the government shutdown -- but what's even worse is the thought of borrowing money from her mom, who supports President Donald Trump.

"I'm 40 and I've been working since I was 22 or 23 [years old] full time, and so it's just weird because I'm used to always being able to take care of myself," said Griffith, a safety engineer for life support systems on Orion – the spacecraft being built to take humans back to the moon. "I really don't want to take a loan from [my mom] but its free money. You do what you've got to do."

It's a mantra likely on repeat in the minds of many at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The shutdown, which started Dec. 22 and shows no signs of ending, has put 94 percent of the 3,055 federal employees out of work as Trump holds firm on his demand that Congress fund a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

And those workers will undoubtedly miss their first paycheck Friday.

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"I just feel like it's so unnecessary, ya know? Why can't we reopen the government and then have this discussion about the wall?" Griffith said. "I'm not saying there's ever a good reason to shut down, but this is probably the stupidest reason to shut down the government."

Johnson officials will be hosting an open house Friday to answer questions about the furlough, including what unemployment benefits are available, what loans can be applied for through the JSC Federal Credit Union and what food banks and utility assistance can be accessed. The open will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday in Johnson's Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom.

The Houston center 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. The about 200 federal employees still working at Johnson primarily are there to ensure the astronauts aboard the International Space Station stay alive.

Griffith and her husband, an assistant principal at a local high school, think they can avoid -- albeit barely -- borrowing money this time around: the result of a combination of scrimping, staying indoors and dipping into their savings. But if it stretches on much longer, she said they won't have another option.

"The mortgage isn't due until the end of the month, so we'll probably be OK missing this one paycheck," Griffith said. "But once the big bills come due, then we might start having to borrow money."

Griffith knows she's in a better spot than most. Her husband doesn't work for the government, she said, and they don't have kids. For many of her coworkers, both spouses are out of work with mouths to feed.

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NASA safety engineer Johanna Petrocelli is trying to help people who fall into that category. On Monday, she started a GoFundMe page to raise money for fellow federal workers hurting the most.

"I'm a federal employee in Houston, TX and I just want to help my fellow community," Petrocelli wrote. "So I set up this GoFundMe as a means to help anyone (affected) by the furlough pay specifically for medical/child care/animal care bills."

She had raised nearly $1,500 as of Thursday afternoon, surpassing her goal of $1,000.

Petrocelli was not available for comment Thursday, but her GoFundMe page states she will provide money to federal workers who contact her.

"My plan is to withdraw the funds once we reach the goal and transfer it to every federal employee who reaches out to this campaign requesting a need for money (pending confirmation of the federal employee/contractor status)," she wrote.

Though 3,055 federal workers are employed at Johnson, a total of about 10,000 people work there when contractors are included in the count. A fair number of contractors still are working, but a recent tweet from one contractor in mission control suggests they'll begin feeling blows as well.

"The #GovernmentShutdown is starting to affect me as a contractor," the employee tweeted Wednesday. "No more comp time and forced holidays (MLK) in order to stretch what little funding we have left as long as possible."

Byron Williams, Houston area labor representative for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said the 150 or so contractors he represents on site will be fine for about another week.

At that point, money will start running out, he added, and people will be out of work.

"It's sad the government is holding employees and their livelihoods hostage over internal funding," Williams said.

While Griffith and her husband prepare to ask their loved ones for help, Susan Anderson gears up for a part-time job hunt starting in February.

Anderson is a protocol officer at Johnson, meaning she represents the center director's office for VIP tours. She was on leave when the shutdown began and didn't plan on returning to work until Monday.

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That obviously didn't happen.

For now, Anderson will change how she pays her bills in the hopes that the shutdown will end soon. She made sure to pay the mortgage and her credit card bills, she said, but if the bill wasn't due until the end of the month, she held off.

"I hope we see an end to this so we can get back to work on Monday," she said. "We're getting pretty tired of it."

Anderson's husband, Clayton Anderson -- a retired astronaut who now works as a part-time professor at Iowa State University, has written several books and is on the speaker's circuit – can pick up the monetary slack while she isn't getting paid. But if she wants to avoid drawing money from her retirement, that will only last until February.

"I have another person with an income I can lean on so I have a little more flexibility," she said. "Here in the Houston area, a lot of people, even if it's a two-income family, both people work for the government so it's going to be a strain. I'm lucky I'm married to someone who's not working at NASA."

Alex Stuckey writes about NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.