Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.

NASA has dropped its commitment to land the first woman, the first person of color, and the first non-American astronaut on the Moon through the Artemis program. This move is in response to the Trump administration’s executive directives to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government.

Abandoning a commitment to diversity will likely affect who is selected to crew the Artemis III mission, currently planned to land astronauts on the moon in 2027.

Journalists at the Orlando Sentinel reported that NASA’s webpage for the Artemis mission removed a sentence that was once a cornerstone of the Artemis program: “NASA will land the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the Moon using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.”

As of 21 March, that sentence no longer appears on NASA’s Artemis website.

These screenshots show NASA’s homepage for the Artemis mission as seen on 11 March (left) and 24 March (right). In response to President Trump’s directives to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs from the federal government, the Artemis Program dropped its pledge (highlight added) to land the first woman, the first person of color, and the first non-American on the Moon. Credit: (left): NASA via Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, (right) NASA

In a statement to The Guardian, NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel said, “In keeping with the president’s executive order, we’re updating our language regarding plans to send crew to the lunar surface as part of [NASA’s] Artemis campaign. We look forward to learning more from [and] about the Trump administration’s plans for our agency and expanding exploration at the moon and Mars for the benefit of all.”

• NASA websites no longer promote ‘first woman’ on the moon for Artemis (Orlando Sentinel)
• Nasa drops plan to land first woman and first person of color on the moon (The Guardian)
• Anti-DEI executive actions: 20 January and 21 January
• Get Involved: AGU Science Policy Action Center

The Artemis program and its goal to land non-white, non-male, and non-American astronauts was formalized and approved in 2019 under the first Trump administration, partly in recognition that all 12 people who have walked on the Moon have been white men. To date, 20 Black astronauts and 70 women astronauts (out of more than 600 total) have flown in space.

The Artemis I mission, which flew around the Moon in 2022, was uncrewed. The primary and backup crews on the Artemis II mission, set to fly around the Moon in 2026, include two women (Christina Koch and Jenni Gibbons, who is also Canadian), two Black men (Victor Glover and Andre Douglas), and two Canadian astronauts (Jeremy Hansen and Gibbons). It is not immediately clear whether anti-diversity executive actions, as well as the escalating trade war and diplomatic tensions with Canada, will affect the Artemis II crew.

—Kimberly M. S. Cartier (@astrokimcartier.bsky.social), Staff Writer

These updates are made possible through information from the scientific community. Do you have a story about how changes in law or policy are affecting scientists or research? Send us a tip at eos@agu.org.

Text © 2024. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Research & Developments is a blog for brief updates that provide context for the flurry of news regarding law and policy changes that impact science and scientists today.

Related

These updates are made possible through information from the scientific community. Do you have a story about how changes in law or policy are affecting scientists or research? Send us a tip at eos@agu.org.

Text © 2024. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Text © 2024. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.

Astronomy Week 2020