Real space missions are back on the menu!
Posted by Leslie Eastman
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!!!!!
NASA chief scientist Katherine Calvin among 20+ staff laid off under Trump admin
Changes signal potential NASA shift from climate science toward human spaceflight
Military also cutting 90+ studies labeled “climate change crap” by Defense Sec Hegsethhttps://t.co/7bg6DdH17C
— George P (@PrinceGeorgeK) March 11, 2025
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.
Reductions in workforce at NASA have begun.
Divisions closed include Office of the Chief Scientist; the Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy; and the DEI branch of its Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity.
With their senior climate leadership shown the door, it will… pic.twitter.com/Ia0OgV9ric
— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) March 11, 2025
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.
Winning feels so good! Next up: Elon rescues the astronauts.
When will they refocus GISS back to Robert Jastrow the founders original mission focus?
GISS is redudant with NOAA as far as climate modeling is concerned. Close GISS after making them archive everything, and send the archive to NOAA for storage.
BTW, isn’t GISS associated with Columbia University, the same folks who run that Climate Change “journalism” service?
Robert Jastrow, he never accepted the AGW conjecture either.
After leaving Columbia, Jastrow became an assistant professor at Yale, and then joined the Naval Research Laboratory. In 1958, he joined the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration as head of its theoretical division.[1] In 1961, he became the founding director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and served as its director until his retirement from NASA in 1981. Concurrently, he was a professor of Geophysics at Columbia University.[1]
Jastrow was the first chairman of NASA’s Lunar Exploration Committee, which established the scientific goals for the exploration of the Moon during the Apollo lunar landings. [2]
LINK
I see nothing wrong here.
“Chief Scientist” is an interesting Orwellian way to title the Climate Change Boss.
Lee Zeldin would likely use the more apt term of high priestess.. The head of the USA order of Climatology.
I know the joint BoM/CSIRO Climatology order look up to GISS as being the closer to God (IPCC) than they are..
Eric Hoffer pointed out that all mass movements end up looking like a religion as they are done by people, and people will act in stereotypical ways.
NASA needs to be concerned about the WEATHER on launch day, not the climate.
The best thing would be to axe GISS and start with a new organisation. This mob is the heart of the climate scam. I believe it is irredeemable. No honest scientist could accept the tripe they dish up as science.
I agree. It’s like the USAID, the EPA, DOE, and many others.
The shift of earth sciences from NASA to NOAA seems promising and long as climate zealots do not get put in charge.
I almost feel sorry for the poor lefties even if they can manage to get the next presidency it is going to take years to try and build back the lefty swamps in these departments.
No, they’ll just spend lots and lots of our money to recreate the swamp quickly.
That’ll be 12 years worth of build back that took them 50 years to build in the first place 😉
Call me when they can Gavin Schmidt and the gang in the New York climate office.
They’re still going strong doing what they do since the ’90s
Here’s their Land Ocean Temperature Index (LOTI) with data complete through Jan 2025
and Feb 2025 There are 1728 comparable entries January 1880 through January 2025
The last two publications of GISTEMP’s LOTI show that 516 changes were made to those
1728 monthly entries between the February and March publication dates.
This goes on as a steady drone month after month year after year. It averages over 370
changes per month since 2003. When plotted out it forms a pattern. Here’s a chart of
data published in 2010 compared to the same data published in 2020.
Maybe they will find some money to fund Aeronautics Research as well – that is the first A in NASA.
Recently the dominant theme in their aeronautics R&D has been “sustainable aviation”, emphasizing such dead ends as electric and hybrid turboelectric propulsion and sustainable (how to make kerosene really expensive) fuels. With a little bit on low boom supersonic transport.
“Jettisons ‘Climate Advisor,’ DEI Branch, and Other Drags”… no pun intended.
2018 flashbacks, anyone? https://duckduckgo.com/?q=furry+intern+NASA&ia=web
That intern had a twitter go around with Homer Hickam, the author of “Rocket Boys” and a NASA aeronautical engineer. He is a class act.
Why did I read “Jetsons Climate Advisor?”
My first take as well!
The most overt, obnoxious and odious clowns are
sent packingslated to be sent packing. That’s nice. Next question: were all other tag-along clowns who ran their parties on NASA budget for years “jettisoned” too?https://web.archive.org/web/20160215020246/www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2016/2/11/celebrating-women-in-science
https://web.archive.org/web/20180923210629/mars.nasa.gov/resources/7705/women-in-science/
(these two photographs still amuse me)
Not hearing a choir of every duckface in the world screeching about “Waagh On Waahmen” yet.
If not, the process may be more of «reduce apparat, lengthen condenser coil», as one Russian comedian of Gorbachev era put it.
Janet Petro, IPCC plant, should never have been anywhere near being the head of NASA.
‘a climate science expert’? Why? I am a climate science expert: I know it’s mostly rubbish and more I need not to know.
I am still trying to locate a college or university that offers a degree in climate science.
I have experience in many of the many relevant fields. But to get a PhD or even a BS that covers all of them in sufficient depth seems impossible.
Didn’t you know that a climate scientist is specifically trained in Alarm Mechanics and Philosophy of Doom. No more is required.
In essence this is how I would have liked the other agencies to address inefficiencies and waste.
Start with identifying the core mission. If the core mission is legitimate, then start pruning everything not related to the core mission.
NASA provides launch and test infrastructure that has been proven valuable for decades. NASA provides mission support services that are essential for human space activities. NASA is fading from the launch vehicle arena due to successful commercial enterprise. NASA never actually built a rocket as those were contracted to commercial enterprises, so this is only a contracting and financial shift, not a technology shift.
I am involved in rockets. I see this as an improvement.
From the above article’s first paragraph:
“. . . the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) . . . as insiders revealed the agency squandered millions of taxpayer money on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.”
Ummmm . . . does this mean that NASA just might have to revise its stated main objective for the Artemis III lunar mission:
“For the benefit of all humanity, NASA and its partners will land the first woman and first person of color on the surface of the Moon with Artemis.”
— https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/artemis-iii/
There’s a chance that NASA will return not only humans to the Moon but moreover to science-based rationale for its endeavors and its associated spending of taxpayer dollars.
The eternally restless are never happy. At least now they’ll be able to differentiate between men and women with surety-
Arlington Cemetery scrubs info on famous Black, Hispanic, and female veterans to comply with Trump orders
Life is full of tradeoffs lefties.
https://www.usdebtclock.org/
U.S. Debt Clock with D.O.G.E. Clock.
Product of the Congressional Budget Office.
Lots of numbers a-whirl such as u.s. debt, interest payments on the debt and federal deficit; many other clocks moving with disturbing slowness. Every minute: three people added to the U.S. population and three private sector jobs added… but the same number added to food stamp program and four dropping out of the workforce.