by NASA announced on Monday that it had eliminated the office of its chief scientist and closed two other departments, including one that covered equity, inclusion and accessibility (Deia) when Donald Trump’s federal efficiency cross train brought deep into the US spaceship agency.
The office for technology, politics and strategy, which NASA advises on important management decisions, was also closed and a unadorned number of employees were released. This emerges from a memo to the employee signed by Janet Petro, the incumbent administrator of NASA.
Petro painted the reduction that she had in a January memo in which the DEI programs were split, wasteful and shaped, as “a thoughtful approach that matches both the priorities of the administration and our mission needs”.
Analysts, however, will probably examine the obvious coexistence of the Axetation of the Deia branch of the agency of the agency for diversity, justice and involvement, since NASA still has its desired goal of landing the first woman and the first person of the color on the moon on board her Artemis Rockets in the coming years, in the coming years in the coming years.
Petro, whose management position will soon be taken over by the billionaire Jared Isaacman, Trump’s election for the NASA administrator, asked the workers to “accept” the challenge when the cuts become effective.
she said [work]Power and reorganization plan ”, which results from Trump’s executive commands for cuts and the cleaning of Dei initiatives and programs in federal authorities.
“We consider this as an opportunity to redesign our workforce and ensure that we do what we are required to do by law and provide the American citizens an efficient and effective agency,” wrote Petro.
“I know that these messages are difficult and can affect all of us differently. The change in this size is never easy, but our strength comes from our joint commitment to our mission and each other. “
Many will see the elimination of the chief scientist’s office as an abrupt turn in the climate policy of the agency and another attack by conservatives on science and evidence -based decision -making.
The current chief scientist and senior climate protection advisor of the agency, Dr. Kate Calvin was appointed in January 2022 by the then NASA administrator Bill Nelson, a former democratic senator.
“Climate change is one of the biggest challenges for our nation and planet. NASA is a world’s leading leader in the climate and geosciences, ”she said at the time.
It played a leading role in advising the NASA leadership of all aspects of their scientific programs and scientific strategic planning and investments, especially if they relate to the climate approval and the actions of humans to global warming and increasing sea temperatures.
The closure of the Deia office represents a similar reversal of politics for an agency, which in September promoted its partnership with the National Association for the further development of colored people (NAACP) to increase engagement and equity for underrepresented students in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
After the successor to Nelson, Petro insisted in January that such programs “shared the Americans by breed, taxpayers wasted dollars and led to shameful discrimination”.
The third NASA office on Monday – technology, politics and strategy – was founded in the administrator’s office in 2021 to “bring different, multidisciplinary experts together to convey NASA leadership with analytical, strategic and decisive insights”.
It housed the main technologist and chief economist of the agency, and the analysis of the NASA guidelines was recognized as a critical check and balance.
The immediate reaction to the cuts on social media was largely critical.
In a contribution to X, Grant Tremblay, astrophysicist at Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, admitted that NASA needed a reform, but the excretion of the departments in wholesale was excessive.
“NASA is small, but it is probably the most legendary and globally popular agency in American history. The outbreaks have started and the upcoming cuts are so massive that we won’t recognize it in a year, ”he wrote.
“Many of these cuts are probably essentially irreversible. It is difficult to build something great out of a bunch of ashes and debris. The people who lose will not come back. If you lose a lead, never recover it. Reminder Lost is lost forever. “
