Top-down cuts to the US federal workforce – via buyouts – and staff shortages resulting from resignations due to Trump’s orders on diversity, gender and remote work are further compounding pre-existing staffing concerns about Nasa’s ability to continue operating the International Space Station (ISS) and execute Trump’s ambitious vision for Moon and Mars exploration, the sources said.
Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders could jeopardize safety of Nasa crews Cuts to federal workforce due to Trump’s orders are adding to pre-existing staffing concerns at agency, sources say.
Nasa, which is currently led by Janet Petro, its first female administrator, quickly worked to shutter its diversity offices just hours after Trump took office and initiated an agency-wide scrub of terms related to diversity, equity and inclusion following Trump’s executive order on the topic.
A flurry of executive orders and internal directives from Donald Trump’s administration may be putting the safety of Nasa’s crews in jeopardy, sources within the US space agency told the Guardian.
Sources familiar with the operations of Nasa’s mission control in Houston, Texas, say that safety concerns that emerged as a result of Biden-era budget cuts have now heightened with the onslaught of executive orders ranging from a purge of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies to a blanket return-to-office mandate.
