The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has become the latest United States agency to face the brunt of the Donald Trump administration’s obsession with finding and eliminating every government expenditure it considers excess or unnecessary. The world’s leading space agency has announced it would be shutting down at least three departments to comply with President Trump’s executive orders issued in January. The departments include the office of the chief scientist which is the topmost scientific advisory position in the agency. The other two departments facing the axe were the office of technology, policy and strategy, and some parts of the office of diversity and equal opportunity (ODEO) that deals with diversity and inclusion. The New York Times reported that about 20 positions in all were likely to be eliminated including that of the chief scientist. NASA has a workforce of about 18,000. Operations not hit The NASA decision has not touched the operational parts of the space programme as yet. However, some fear that this might just be the beginning of budget cuts that eventually would start to affect the missions as well. NASA’s science mission directorate, responsible for directing and overseeing the space research programme, could face as much as 50 per cent cuts in its budget, according to Ars Technica, a US-based news website. The Planetary Society, an influential non-profit engaged in space exploration advocacy, said such a step would be “nothing short of an extinction event for space science and exploration in the US” and would “functionally surrender American leadership in scientific space exploration”. Currently, NASA seems to have gotten away lightly in comparison with some other government departments which have faced much heavier cuts. For example, only a few positions in ODEO have been axed. The department itself seems to have survived. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measures have been under special attack by the Trump administration, and all such programs across the federal government have already been defunded. However, the ODEO page on NASA’s website has been taken down. This included a link that hosted the NASA strategic plan for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility for the 2022-26 period. Interestingly, the main objective of NASA’s showpiece Artemis programme is to land “the first woman, first person of colour, and first international partner astronaut on the Moon using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before”. The Artemis programme, which is about taking humans back to the Moon, and eventually to Mars, was approved in 2017, during Trump’s first term in office. Chief scientist removed The most high-profile closure is that of the office of the chief scientist. The entire office has been shut down. The chief scientist worked as an advisor to the NASA chief, called the administrator, providing independent assessment and advice on all science-related matters. It was also NASA’s public-facing branch on science. Current chief scientist Katherine Calvin, a climate scientist, was appointed to the position in 2022. The office also had a deputy chief scientist and at least five other senior officials. This is not the first time that the office of chief scientist has been discontinued. Created in 1982, this office has undergone closure or restructuring several times. It either did not exist or was not manned, during 1989 and 1993, for example, and then again between 1996 and 1999, and between 2005 and 2011. Calvin is the 11th scientist to serve in this position since it was created in 1982. The office of technology, policy and strategy, the third department to be closed down, was created just four years ago, in 2021. It used to bring together multidisciplinary experts from outside to help the NASA leadership in making decisions about the space missions. This group used to provide inputs related to economics, public policy, technology and others, and identify emerging issues and opportunities that could be integrated with NASA’s science missions. Change of guard NASA is currently awaiting a new administrator, who has been appointed but not yet confirmed by the US Senate. The NASA administrator, the overall head of the agency, is a political appointment. A deputy administrator is also a political appointee. The highest-ranking NASA cadre employee is the associate administrator. Trump has named Jared Isaacman as the next administrator of NASA. The 42-year-old billionaire businessman has flown as a space tourist on two SpaceX missions which he funded himself. In September 2024, during his second flight, Isaacman performed a spacewalk as well, becoming the first non-professional astronaut to achieve the feat. He is considered close to SpaceX founder Elon Musk who has been spearheading the Trump administration’s federal cost-cutting initiative. Trump named him as the next NASA administrator in December last year. If confirmed, Isaacman would become the youngest NASA administrator ever, beating the record of Jim Bridenstine who was a few months older when he took over the position in April 2018, during Trump’s first term.
