NASA is working to comply with President Donald Trump’s crusade for diversity and inclusion in federal agencies and is reportedly removing key terms related to accessibility, indigenous peoples, women, and other topics deemed “wasteful” by the current administration from its websites.
In a memo sent out on January 22, NASA employees were ordered to “scrub” references to certain terms from the agency’s websites by the end of the day, 404 Media reports. “This is a request to drop everything and re-prioritize your workday,” the memo reads. “Please note that the list below is a list that exists this morning, but it may expand throughout the day.”
The list includes references to diversity, equality, diversity inclusion programs (DEIA), underrepresented groups/people, environmental justice, and “anything specifically targeting women (women in leadership positions, etc.),” according to a memo obtained by 404 Media. Gizmodo has reached out to NASA to confirm this information, but had not heard back by press time.
Shortly after President Donald Trump announced his executive order to close DEIA offices in the federal government, NASA quickly ended its diversity programs and canceled all related contracts. “These programs divided Americans along racial lines, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination,” wrote NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro in a memo sent to agency employees on January 22.
Prior to Trump’s orders, NASA was recognized as one of the best employers in the United States in terms of diversity in 2023. According to a 2021 report by the NASA Office of Inspector General, NASA’s workforce is approximately 35% female and 30% minority. However, the agency still has much to do to improve inclusivity among its employees. The 2024 report concludes that “despite support from Agency leadership and numerous initiatives to increase diversity, we found that NASA has not made significant progress in increasing the representation of women and minorities in civilian workforce or leadership positions,” writes the NASA Office of Inspector General. “In particular, over the past decade, the overall demographics at NASA have remained roughly the same, with small increases (1 or 2 percent) for some groups.”
Disturbing changes are now taking place on NASA’s websites that aim to omit important milestones in the space agency’s history. For example, a 2023 article mentioning the 1978 graduation of NASA astronauts, including the first women, blacks, and African Americans, was removed from the agency’s website by January 29, with an error message appearing instead, SpaceNews reports. In addition, words such as “inclusive” were replaced with “equitable,” and the word “inclusion” was removed from NASA’s pages altogether, 404 Media reports.
In an effort to comply with Trump’s order, NASA has also suspended several astrophysics and planetary science committees as it works to find out how these groups feel about outdated DEI programs.
