Keith’s note: You folks probably already know this but it bears repeating: more bad news is arriving. NASA managers have to implement orders from the White House and these orders suck big time. No deviation is allowed. These NASA managers are worried sick about this and are trying to protect y’all. But sooner or later it will come to them refusing to carry out orders – and they will be gone too. Speaking as a former NASA employee myself – a child of the Apollo era – the worst outcome would be for all of you – all of us – to forget why we wanted to work for NASA and why it is voted the most popular place in government to work year after year. Y’all made it that special place. No other agency is charted to explore the universe. Not even close. And the people who accept that challenge are what made America the leader in space exploration. You have touched the sun, visited every planet, and now sail across interstellar space. Never forget that. Ad Astra – Keith

As we head into the long weekend, I want to take a moment to recognize President’s Day – a chance to reflect on the principles of leadership, service, and the pursuit of ambitious goals that move our nation forward. Those same principles fuel our work at NASA, whether it’s delivering science results, preparing for our next mission, or supporting each other. Thank you for your continued dedication to our mission. A few important updates for this week:

Keith’s note: It looks like the NASAPRS “NASA Task Book is down for maintenance” according to its website at https://taskbook.nasaprs.com/. It has been offline since last week. Have a look at these two papers I found rather quickly that use a forbidden DEIA word. I’ll bet they are not there when this resource comes back online. I have an archive online here at Astrobiology.com

• NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #1,111 2 August 2024 (Space Life Science Research Results) “Asrar FM, Bolles D, Ngo-Anh TJ. Healthcare can learn from space exploration to champion disability inclusion. Commun Med (Lond). 2024 Jul 25;4(1):147.Note: From the abstract: “People with disabilities, including healthcare professionals, encounter many obstacles. The space sector is taking steps towards promoting equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility, including developing the world’s first parastronaut program. Here, we propose that healthcare can learn from space in enhancing disability inclusion.” This article may be obtained online without charge.”
• NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #1,078 8 December 2023 (Space Life Science Research Results): “Mandt KE. Increasing diversity on spacecraft mission teams reduces risk.Science. 2023 Dec 8;382(6675):eadk7373. Online ahead of print. Journal Impact Factor: 56.9″

Keith’s note: This document was being distributed on Monday, 3 February 2025. Full text below

Keith’s note: Here are my two tweets to the NASA world today. The professional organizations that supposedly support NASA and the space community are too sheepish to stand up and say anything. And the people in the NASA community are scared of standing up to say anything. It’s a perfect storm of silence. Ad Astra y’all,

Keith’s note: NASA PAO just sent this important clarification on science advisory groups to Marcia Smith @SpcPlcyOnline – but not to other media (see below). It would seem that NASA PAO and OCOMMS are simply clueless as to how external media sources are trying to get messages out regarding things that are going on – in a way that NASA cannot. If NASA is too lazy to be smart and proactive about this then why should we bother? Be certain to follow @SpcPlcyOnline to catch the things @NASAWatch is not provided with. Ad Astra y’all. Update: I finally got a response from PAO late Monday night. Apparently you can only get certain information of direct relevance to the entire NASA family if you ask for it. PAO will not proactively release this information to all media.

Keith’s note: Two weeks: Waiting to see if/when these Space-oriented organizations (list below) respond to newly announced personnel and diversity policy actions directly affecting NASA. Or not. They are just going to let this all happen.If y’all can’t be bothered to speak up then why should I bother?

Keith’s note: Have a look at “CDC Researchers Ordered to Retract Papers Submitted to All Journals“ at MedPage which says “In the order, CDC researchers were instructed to remove references to or mentions of a list of forbidden terms: Gender …” OK, so that apparently means a lot of NASA scientific research needs to be retracted too. It took 60 seconds and a simple word search to find these papers at PubMed containing at least one term forbidden in CDC papers:

• Sex-specific cardiovascular adaptations to simulated microgravity in Sprague-Dawley rat
• Women in space: A review of known physiological adaptations and health perspectives
• Spaceflight induces changes in gene expression profiles linked to insulin and estrogen
• Adaptation to full weight-bearing following disuse in rats: The impact of biological sex on musculoskeletal recovery

Keith’s note: NASA Science Mission Directorate sent this memo out today: “As NASA continues to review and ensure compliance with presidential actions, we are requesting that you please pause all meetings and activities of Planetary Science Analysis/Assessment Groups. This includes ExMAG, LEAG, MAPSIT, MEPAG, MExAG, OPAG, OWWG, SBAG, VEXAG, the cross-AG EDIA Working Group, and any other groups or activities that have been developed by the AGs. Please make your communities aware of this request. If you are no longer the chair of one of these AGs or AG-associated groups, please let me know so I can ensure the appropriate folks receive this information.”

Keith’s note: this memo was sent out by NASA on 29 January 2025: “Dear NASA Grants Community On January 23, 2025, NASA’s Office of Procurement (OP) released a memorandum for the NASA contractor and grant community regarding Executive Order “Initial Recission of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions” and the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) memorandum “Initial Guidance Regarding DEIA Executive Orders.” Per OP’s memo, NASA grant and cooperative agreement recipients shall immediately cease and desist all DEIA activities required for their award. This work may include but is not limited to: DEIA plan requirements, training, workshops, reporting, considerations for staffing, or any other direct or indirect grant activity related to DEIA. All grant recipients shall notify their cognizant Grant Officer if they identify requirements within their awards that are in violation of this guidance. Your Grant Officer’s contact information can be found on your NF 1687, Notice of Award for Grant and Cooperative Agreement (NOA). Thank you for your work and partnership with NASA.”

Keith’s note: Sorry for the whiplash: the OMB memo regarding a freezing of government payments has now been rescinded. For now. Let’s see what NASA posts. This was posted yesterday. Confused yet? OMB Q&A Regarding Memorandum M-25-13.

Keith’s note: According to multiple news sources the Trump Administration is going to offer buyouts to nearly all Federal employees. Employees will be given the option of accepting buyouts through a “deferred resignation” program – but only if they resign by 6 Feb 2025. Employees taking the buyout will get pay / benefits through 30 Sept 2025. UPDATE: Here is the Memo: “Deferred Resignation Email to Federal Employees https://www.opm.gov/fork Below is the email that was sent to federal employees on January 28, 2025 presenting a deferred resignation offer. If you did not respond to that email and wish to accept the deferred resignation offer, you may do so by following these steps.”

Keith’s note: The National Space Council is being discontinued. The upcoming NASA Advisory Council meeting in February has been cancelled. The incoming NASA team will stack the new NAC with sycophants. The same goes for the ASAP (Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel). The UAG (Users Advisory Group) will continue as a thank-you to political and industry supporters and will continue to be useless – except when policy rubber stamping and/or dog & pony show moments with pretty backdrops are needed. This has only begun. Ad Astra y’all.

Keith’s note: according to the OMB memo “Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs”:“To implement these orders, each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President’s executive orders. In the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal. This temporary pause will provide the Administration time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities. The temporary pause will become effective on January 28, 2025, at 5:00 PM. Even before completing their comprehensive analysis, Federal agencies must immediately identify any legally mandated actions or deadlines for assistance programs arising while the pause remains in effect. Federal agencies must report this information to OMB along with an analysis of the requirement. OMB also directs Federal agencies to pause all activities associated with open NOFOs, such as conducting merit review panels.”Update: A Federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s pause on Federal funding until at least 3 Feb.Further update: OMB Memo About Payment Freeze Rescinded

Keith’s note: According to “OMB memo Guidance on Implementing President Trump’s Executive Order titled, “Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce”: “On January 20, 2025, the President signed an Executive Order entitled, “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce (“Restoring Accountability”).” This Executive Order reinstates and amends Executive Order 13957 of October 21, 2020. It creates a new Schedule Policy/Career in the excepted service for positions that are of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy advocating character (policy-influencing positions) and filled by individuals not normally subject to replacement or change as a result of a Presidential transition. Such career positions will be rescheduled into Schedule Policy/Career and thereby exempted from the adverse action procedures set forth in chapter 75 of title 5 of the United States Code.”

Keith’s note: I just went to NASA’s NODIS website at https://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/ to dig up some policy directives and, well, it is offline. According to the Wayback Machine it was online as late as the evening of 20 Jan 2025 – but was gone on 21 Jan 2025. All the DEIA stuff that NASA is trying to hide is still online like “Anti-Harassment Procedures” from the NASA Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity. Here’s a list of links to everything that was online – until it wasn’t. The Internet is forever. Nice try.Here’s the entire NODIS library as of 20 Jan 2025 (links) below.

Keith’s note: Looks like this DEIA-oriented page at NASA.gov needs to be erased ASAP: “45 Years Ago: NASA Selects 35 New Astronauts On Jan. 16, 1978, NASA announced the selection of 35 new astronauts, the first time in more than eight years that the agency had admitted new astronauts. The selection of the first class of space shuttle astronauts held historic significance not only because of its then-record size but also because,for the first time, the group included women and minorities. Previous astronaut selections in the 1960s consisted of test pilots or scientists, in those days the domain principally of white men.“Update: I posted this on Sunday morning, 26 January. I checked today – 27 January – and it is gone.

Keith’s note: According to this OPM Guidance issued on 20 January 2025: “Generally, employees in the competitive service with less than one year of service, and in the excepted service with less than two years of service, can be terminated without triggering MSPB appeal rights. This applies to temporary employees on appointments “not to exceed” a date certain. No later than January 24, 2025, agencies should identify all employees on probationary periods, who have served less than a year in a competitive service appointment, or who have served less than two years in an excepted service appointment, and send a report to OPM listing all such employees to [email protected], with a copy to Amanda Scales at [email protected]. In addition, agencies should promptly determine whether those employees should be retained at the agency.“

Keith’s note: this was sent to NASA employees at 4:30 pm EST today: “As part of my message to you on Monday evening, I committed to transparent communication and sharing what I know. We have received several executive orders that apply to our agency. Specifically, we are tracking directives related to return to in-person work, a federal hiring freeze, reforming the federal hiring process, aligning agency programs with the policy of equal dignity and respect, Senior Executive Service (SES) performance plans, and others.