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NASA Jettisons ‘Climate Advisor,’ DEI Branch, and Other Drags on Space Program

NASA Jettisons ‘Climate Advisor,’ DEI Branch, and Other Drags on Space Program

Real space missions are back on the menu!

The last time I wrote about the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) together, agency staffers were begging President Donald Trump’s DOGE chairman Elon Musk to ‘clean house’, as insiders revealed the agency squandered millions of taxpayer money on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

Their wish has been granted, and less than 100 days into Trump’s second term.

Janet Petro, the acting director of NASA, announced the move Monday in a memo to staff obtained by USA TODAY, calling it a “phased reduction in force” that is “occurring in advance” of a Thursday deadline for agencies to submit layoff plans to the government’s human resources arm.

The memo did not disclose how many NASA jobs will be cut.

The cuts will close NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy; the Office of the Chief Scientist; and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility branch within the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, the memo said. The agency would also reduce the workforce in the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity.

The mainstream media may decry the axe of the “Chief Scientist,” but that “scientist” was actually a climate advisor.

Real space missions are back on the menu:

The cuts affect about 20 employees at NASA, including Katherine Calvin, the chief scientist and a climate science expert. The last day of work for Dr. Calvin and the other staff members will be April 10.

That could be a harbinger of deeper cuts to NASA’s science missions and a greater emphasis on human spaceflight, especially to Mars. During President Trump’s address to Congress last week, he said, “We are going to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond.”

Change!!!!!

The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) branch and another department are also closing.

NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy, meanwhile, was only established in 2021 and serves as the home for the space agency’s chief economist and chief technologist, who provide the administrator “with analytic, strategic, and decisional insights in the form of quick-turn analyses, memos, and reports,” according to its website.

The third NASA office targeted, coordinating the agency’s DEIA efforts, was also the least surprising, as President Donald Trump’s administration has declared it would eliminate such efforts across the government.

What is perhaps most interesting about this news is that this is the agency’s first round of layoffs, and the firings targeted senior leadership.

These are NASA’s first firings since Trump took office, and they have taken a different pattern to those at other federal agencies in the past few weeks.

NASA was spared, for unknown reasons, from the extensive lay-offs of probationary employees — those with little job protection because they have been in their positions for less than two years — seen at other agencies.

The move makes NASA the first agency under the current Trump administration to pre-emptively fire career employees, beginning the required ‘reductions in force’ (RIFs) sooner than many observers had anticipated. It remains unclear whether other agencies might follow NASA’s lead.

Legal Insurrections readers may recall that Trump selected billionaire, astronaut, and hero of the “Polaris” mission Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. His confirmation is still sitting in the US Senate, and no date has been set for the hearing.

I suspect that when Isaacman arrives for his first day as NASA Director, he will find a wonderfully refocused agency.

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Comments

Let’s have a Diversity Branch!
Diversity makes stronger!
Doesn’t it?
Perhaps…
Perhaps not…
Definitely not!
Okay, bad idea.
Get rid of it!


 
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slagothar | March 12, 2025 at 7:42 pm

Who is going to praise the muslims for their great contributions to science?


 
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destroycommunism | March 12, 2025 at 8:37 pm

Bill Gates is alying off people in the usa and europe from his climate change agenda

BUT WHY???

could it be that the usa taxpayers were actually,,,AFTER THE INITIAL inflows from gates etc,, were actually funding their agenda!!!

sure, the will blame the trump admins agenda but that is false

even if trump 1000% stopped any climate change funding

the euros have not and plenty of usa firms doing climate change “”activities”

Investigate Gates and see how much taxmoney went to his manyyy entities hidden under other names


 
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MajorWood | March 12, 2025 at 9:30 pm

We have a name for diversity on the farm. We call them weeds.

This would be part of the great work Trump is doing we must support and which we need the economy to prosper to continue.


 
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Ironclaw | March 12, 2025 at 10:26 pm

Since there’s no atmosphere in outer space, there’s no carbon dioxide and therefore it is settled science that space has no climate and therefore NASA should have no climate change agenda.


 
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JackinSilverSpring | March 12, 2025 at 11:28 pm

NASA’s mission is to get the US into outer space. It had no business at all getting involved with climate science.

My guess is they were no work positions anyway


 
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diver64 | March 13, 2025 at 5:07 am

I’m still waiting for the study that shows DEI makes any organization better. The only thing it really does is give useless people with useless degrees jobs. It would be less destructive to just give them money. Oh, right. That’s called welfare.

I suspect that many “climate advisors” also have inclusive pronouns.


 
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Geoman | March 13, 2025 at 2:54 pm

None of this is about agreeing or disagreeing. It’s about how much money should an organization spend on goals and objectives not vital to their organizing principals. WHY does Nasa exist? What’s it FOR?

The organizing principal of Nasa is 1) to explore space 2) send humans. Climate change and DEI are not essential to those organizing principals and should be jettisoned out the airlock.

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