Embracing The Challenge Of Outreach At NASA. Or Not.

Keith’s note: NASA is consolidating social media accounts (yes this was needed). The FY 2026 NASA Budget Request from the White House eliminates STEM funding, removes all public affairs staff at the field centers, cuts NASA HQ PAO staff, and reduces the overall communications and outreach budgets. And of course diversity, equity, and inclusion is now a forbidden concept. So where is the plan that NASA is following in order to do all of this? Is there a plan for this at NASA? Or does NASA just have a concept of a plan? One would assume that all of these dramatic changes to the public face of NASA are being done according to some overall guidance – yes? What follows are some random questions off the top of my head about the effective education and public outreach and engagement plan that the world’s pre-eminent space agency would need in order to continue to lead the way – and also expand that lead. Or maybe they don’t actually care to have a plan. Or know how. (More below)

1. Is there a formally baselined NASA plan that is being used across the entire agency to guide the reformatting of all NASA education and public outreach activities – including all public-facing outlets, products, materials, and activities? If so can you please provide a copy of that plan. If that plan cannot be released in whole or in part can you explain why there is a lack of transparency in this regard?
2. If there is no formally baselined NASA education and outreach plan now, is one under development? When will it be finished? Who is developing that plan? When will it be in place? Who (individuals/offices) is reviewing it to make certain that it maximizes outreach?
3. If no formally baselined NASA education and outreach plan is under development or anticipated, what guidelines, executive orders, laws, legislation, or other guidance is being used to direct the substantial changes, additions, and deletions that have been evident in the past few months? Who (individuals/offices) is in charge of instituting these ongoing education and outreach changes at NASA? Who initiates these changes – and who reviews and approves them?
4. Has – or will – guidance be provided to NASA from OMB, OPM, OSTP, DOGE and other Administration offices that has – or will – guide the reorganization of all NASA education and outreach? How will NASA provide feedback to the Administration on changes that have been made and how these changes are working – or not working?
5. Are any of these changes at NASA education coordinated with the Department of Education? If so please describe? Will NASA take on roles or responsibilities currently conducted by the Department of Education as that Department is dismantled per White House direction? While budgetary resources be transferred to NASA to support any additional responsibilities?
6. With the drastic cuts in overall NASA education, outreach and overall scientific research being implemented according to White House direction, what is the anticipated budget for the remaining education and outreach activities? Which NASA divisions or directorates or missions will pay for an d conduct education and outreach?
7. Over the decades NASA has had a chronic inability to measure and report the success of education and outreach in terms of basic metrics i.e. how many individuals have been reached, who are these individuals (audiences)? What response rates have been achieved, what areas have been cited as being deficient, what remedies have been proposed to fix deficiencies? Which of these deficiencies led to the elimination or modification of NASA education and outreach by current NASA leadership?
8. How will NASA determine if these changes to education and outreach are working – or not working? What metrics will the agency use? What review process will be used to address and refine the approaches used? How will the vast array of missions that NASA engages in be coordinated so as to make the best use of limited resources, embrace and refine synergies, minimize overlaps, and focus everything into and efficient tool to explain and promote American space exploration and science leadership?

I’ll stop here. You get my point. NASA has never really explained itself when it comes to education and outreach planning or policy. Instead, everyone, everywhere at NASA, just did whatever they wanted absent any actual plan. Coordination, if it happened, was often a happy accident. Many parts of NASA duplicated what was already being done elsewhere so as to preserve organizational visibility and grab budget resources.

The only reason a lot of this worked in terms of informing and inspiring the world is that NASA does the most astonishing things that any government agency does and they do it better than any other space agency in the world. Stunning vistas of the solar system and the universe and daring missions by humans and robots to distant worlds often speaks clearly without public affairs captions. That said, NASA could still do vastly more. It has a global branding reach that surpasses that of many huge corporations. And it is presently wasted.

If NASA is going to be great (again etc.) in space i.e. maintain and expand leadership, then it deserves to be given the resources and thoughtfully considered strategic forethought to enable these things to be achieved. That includes funding and conducting the missions for which NASA has become so widely known. Otherwise NASA is just kicking the can down the road – again. And we will eventually yield more than half a century of leadership by willful default and neglect to other nations who are not afraid to fully embrace the challenge of space.