Keith’s note: A year ago NASA and other government agencies were trying to broaden outreach to all Americans. NASA had a particular focus on reaching underserved communities. That has now evaporated. Instead, government agencies such as the Department of Labor have decided that 1950’s white males with chiseled features in heroic poses should be the symbol of what America is all about.

Keith’s note: Once upon a time NASA PAO would have talked about increasing diversity – in the Astronaut Corps – and elsewhere across the agency. Now — not so much.

Keith’s note: On 1 July 2025 Mark Sykes, Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, published an op ed titled “Taking Action Against Historical Censorship by USRA” which I reprinted here on NASAWatch. UPDATE: Mark Sykes has posted a response to USRA’s critique of his original OpEd.

• USRA has responded: “Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, misrepresents USRA’s actions in response to the Administration’s directives on DEI-related matters. His article contains numerous inaccuracies and hyperbole that distort the facts surrounding USRA’s removal of DEI content”. Full document: USRA Response to the Editorial Titled “Taking Action Against Historical Censorship by USRA”.
• I got a call last week from USRA’s Senior VP Bernie Seery asking if I’d post the USRA response to Sykes editorial. I said yes and Seery agreed to send it to me by email. I never got it.
• Also, to be transparent, I told Seery that actions by USRA with regard to LPI and LPSC to edit and censor history by regarding links to items and the items themselves from its websites walks right up to the line of blatant complicity with regard to the erasure of items having to do with equality, diversity, and inclusion within the space science community writ large.
• Also with regard to Sykes’ call for an independent replacement for LPSC in 2026, I agree that it is warranted given USRA’s actions. And NASA has cut funding for it any way. Revisionist history slows science – it does not advance it.
• Erasing NASA Diversity Abstracts Is Not That Easy, earlier post
• LPI DEI Censorship Memo From USRA/LPI, earlier post
• USRA’s Non-Deletion Deletion of LPI Website Material, earlier post

Keith’s note: Up until last year NASA always made mention of Juneteenth and what it represents to NASA and to our nation. Not any more. Why is that Janet?

Keith’s note: The NASA DEI Erasure Squad has been busy. If you search for past LPSC abstracts on DEI, DEIA, diversity etc. you’ll see that they have disappeared and prior meeting agendas have been altered. Try this one from 2022: “Insight’s Diversity and Inclusion Working Group“. Its gone. But the Internet Archive has it here. While I have your attention how about this one over at NTRS “Diversity and Inclusion in Spacecraft Science Teams: What Do We Know and What Can We Do About It?” from NASA GSFC that was presented LPSC 2023. Or “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Initiatives on the Mars 2020 Science Team and Implications for NASA Planetary Science Missions“ presented at LPSC 2024. These and many other diversity and inclusion themed abstracts are all still online at a NASA server. And there’s man more abstracts and papers online all over the agency. And they are being archived offline. And they are in the abstract volumes originally created and distributed in printed and PDF formats to tens of thousands of participants. The DOGE Diversity Narcs are not very good at their job. You cannot make this whole topic go away. It just grows back and spreads when you try to do so. Just sayin’

Keith’s note: According to this 2021 ENR article, Acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro was firmly in the diversity-is-good camp back in the day. KSC Director Janet Petro Reflects on Diversity: “Petro: KSC has embraced the link between diverse teams and innovation. We reinforce this message with our entire workforce by including it as one of our DEIA Crucial Topics: “NASA sees DEIA as a mission imperative. Our commonalities unite us as a team, and the universe of our differences gives us the perspectives and insights that mitigate group think and confirmation bias.”

Keith’s note: On Saturday I posted a series of links about NASA’s decision to try and erase all mention of the two “First Woman” graphic novels it released several years ago. It did not work. They are spreading. The Iceland Space agency is now featuring them and will soon have links to both documents.

Keith’s 23 March update: within a few hours after this was posted (over a weekend) A NASA YouTube video and an official NASA photo of two female astronauts were pulled offline. Both things had been online for several years. This is not the first time this has happened. Apparently NASA DEI Sanitation Squad is using my postings to help them delete things. Details below. Keith’s 22 March note: in 2021 NASA issued the first of two interactive comic books/graphic novels (“First Woman: Dream to Reality”) depicting young women dreaming of – and then training for – a future that would comprise the so-called “Artemis Generation.” NASA issued a second novel (“First Woman: Expanding Our Universe”) in November 2023. Yet, as of March 2025 NASA has moved all evidence of these two publications from their various internet platforms as part of the ongoing Federal Government purge of anything related to diversity or women etc. (see “NASA’s Ever-Changing Artemis Crew Tagline‘). But these two publications are not totally gone. I found them – rather easily. Here they are:

Keith’s note: there has been a swarm of stories of late about NASA abandoning the whole “first woman and first person of color” tag line that the Biden Administration used with regard to Artemis lunar missions – which evolved further to “NASA will land the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the Moon”. That tagline evolved out of the Trump 1.0 Administration’s original “first woman” preface as to who’d be landing on the Moon. Now that’s all gone as part of the DEI purge and shunning of international partners that has been inflicted upon all of the Federal Government by Trump 2.0.

by Mark V. Sykes, Ph.D., J.D. – CEO and Director, Planetary Science Institute

To the American Public and Government Officials:

I would like to share a positive perspective of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility from the context of a science institute. At a time when these principles are being purged by our government from a large swath of federal programs, you should know they actually advance science, thereby advancing the interests of our country, and are important for the workplace. In the course of this, I would also like to take this opportunity to show you that scientists share much of your experiences and backgrounds as people, and something about the process of science itself.