Keith’s note: According to an email sent out late on Thursday: “On January 20th, 2025, the President of the United States of America signed an Executive Order entitled “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions”. This Order repealed Executive Order 14035, “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce.” It also directed agencies to take immediate action to identify and terminate DEIA initiatives and programs. To comply with this order, SMD is in the process of amending open Program Elements in ROSES-2024 to end the Inclusion Plan Pilot Study, remove requirements for Inclusion Plans and the evaluation factors associated with them, and adjust the content of some other Program Elements to remove references to NASA’s DEIA programs. Program elements that have already received proposals will not be amended, but if they required Inclusion Plans, those plans will not be reviewed and will not impact the selection of proposals. The program elements that will be amended include:” (long list below)

Keith’s note: According to this email notice sent out today: “Amendment: Updates to Human Exploration Research Opportunities Notice of Funding Opportunity (2025 HERO NOFO): Please be advised that the following update has been made to the ” 2025 Human Exploration Research Opportunities (HERO) NOFO” document. A list of the updates can be found at https://tinyurl.com/HERO25NOFO. This amendment removes the inclusion plan pilot program from the 2025 HERO NOFO and is reflected in all sections across the document. Specific details can be found in the amendment document at the link above. This email is being sent on behalf of HRP and is intended as an information announcement to the research community related to the NASA Space Operations Mission Directorate (SOMD). Thank you for your continued interest in NASA. Please refer to the solicitation document for contact information.”

Keith’s note: Looks like Acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro has totally bought into this. Her words. Update: In all fairness this is the OPM memo that Team Trump sent to all agencies with a template wording for memos, etc. That said, Janet Petro agreed to be NASA Acting Administrator so she had to send it out – but she sent it out under her name without explaining that she was told to do so. As such, minus any explanation, it is her words unless she clarifies things. PAO has not provided any information on this memo. So it is what it is.

Keith’s note: This NASA Diversity and Inclusion webpage will soon go dark. According to this Executive Action all government agencies are directed to “Terminate all “diversity,” “equity,” “equitable decision-making,” “equitable deployment of financial and technical assistance,” “advancing equity,” and like mandates, requirements, programs, or activities, as appropriate.” According to this OPM memo: “No later than 5:00 pm EST on Wednesday, January 22, 2025

• a. Send an agency-wide notice to employees informing them of the closure and asking employees if they know of any efforts to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language a template agency-wide notice is attached as Appendix 1.
• b. Send a notification to all employees of DEIA offices that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close/end all DEIA initiatives, offices and programs.1 A template employee letter is attached as Appendix 2.
• c. Take down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) of DEIA offices.“

Keith’s note: Here is the 9:45 pm EST tiny statement on the whole Acting NASA Administrator confusion thing from NASA PAO. It took them 8+ hours to pick these words – words that simply reflect what the White House posted just after noon today. What possible “additional information” they need to get escapes me.: “The Trump Administration has named Janet Petro the acting administrator of NASA, effective Monday. Petro has served as the center director of the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.” “We’ve received multiple questions today about the incoming administration and agency changes. We appreciate your patience as we work to get additional information to you as soon as possible.”

Keith’s note: according to today’s “Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce” Executive Order:

• In recent years, however, there have been numerous and well-documented cases of career Federal employees resisting and undermining the policies and directives of their executive leadership. Principles of good administration, therefore, necessitate action to restore accountability to the career civil service, beginning with positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character.
• Sec. 2. Reinstatement of Prior Administration Policy. Executive Order 13957 of October 21, 2020 (Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service), is hereby immediately reinstated with full force and effect, subject to the amendments described in section 3 of this order; provided that the date of this order shall be treated as the date of Executive Order 13957.
• (b) Employees in or applicants for Schedule Policy/Career positions are not required to personally or politically support the current President or the policies of the current administration. They are required to faithfully implement administration policies to the best of their ability, consistent with their constitutional oath and the vesting of executive authority solely in the President. Failure to do so is grounds for dismissal.”

Keith’s note: according to today’s “Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives” Executive Order:

• “The President’s power to remove subordinates is a core part of the Executive power vested by Article II of the Constitution and is necessary for the President to perform his duty to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” Because SES officials wield significant governmental authority, they must serve at the pleasure of the President.

• Only that chain of responsibility ensures that SES officials are properly accountable to the President and the American people. If career SES officials fail to faithfully fulfill their duties to advance the needs, policies, and goals of the United States, the President must be able to rectify the situation and ensure that the entire Executive Branch faithfully executes the law. For instance, SES officials who engage in unauthorized disclosure of Executive Branch deliberations, violate the constitutional rights of Americans, refuse to implement policy priorities, or perform their duties inefficiently or negligently should be held accountable.”

Keith’s note: according to today’s “Reforming The Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service” Executive Order: “Federal hiring should not be based on impermissible factors, such as one’s commitment to illegal racial discrimination under the guise of “equity,” or one’s commitment to the invented concept of “gender identity” over sex. Inserting such factors into the hiring process subverts the will of the People, puts critical government functions at risk, and risks losing the best-qualified candidates. … This Federal Hiring Plan shall:

• (i) prioritize recruitment of individuals committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution;
• (ii) prevent the hiring of individuals based on their race, sex, or religion, and prevent the hiring of individuals who are unwilling to defend the Constitution or to faithfully serve the Executive Branch;
• (iii) implement, to the greatest extent possible, technical and alternative assessments as required by the Chance to Compete Act of 2024;
• (iv) decrease government-wide time-to-hire to under 80 days;

Keith’s note: According to the White House KSC Center Director Janet Petro is the acting NASA Administrator – not Jim Free – who would traditionally be named as the acting Administrator pending confirmation of the president’s nominee. But wait according to NASA Jim Free is acting Administrator. Update: Based on lots of sources all over NASA and within the DC/Trump space bubble – no one knew about the appointment of Janet Petro as Acting NASA Administrator – and not Jim Free – including Petro/Free – until people started to call and email and text each other. I sent a request to NASA PAO hours ago asking for clarification. No response. But let’s dial up the speed at which NASA does the whole Mars thing.

Keith’s note: Some people are feeling rather big right now. Others feel rather small. Let’s recalibrate. Wherever you are on the political spectrum just put all of that aside for a moment. We can all rise above this nonsense if we want to. America’s spacecraft have touched the sun and travel across interstellar space. Our reach has always exceeded our grasp. May it always be so. Ad Astra

Keith’s note: Dear Trump Transition Team (whoever you are): America always has been ‘Great in Space’. No “again” is needed. Just sayin’ Ad Astra y’all.

Keith’s note: FYI here’s a list of the “Plum Book” positions – Biden Administration political appointees at NASA. A few of them are rather well off. Let’s see who remains in their positions and who gets reassigned – or fired. And stay tuned for Schedule F!

Keith’s note: According to “Trump team is questioning civil servants at National Security Council about commitment to his agenda” on AP: “Incoming senior Trump administration officials have begun questioning career civil servants who work on the White House National Security Council about who they voted for in the 2024 election, their political contributions and whether they have made social media posts that could be considered incriminating by President-elect Donald Trump’s team, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.”

Keith’s note: When it comes to NASA Transition Teams etc. the names you often hear floated are floated by the same people being named. In reality the people with the most influence often have the best self-discipline and remain low key. As the old saying goes “Those who speak do not know. Those who know do not speak”. It is also important to separate those people (especially the self-identified) who have an axe to grind or scores to settle from those who actually want to help NASA get even better. It is always easier to destroy than to build. Seek out the builders. This has happened before. And it will happen again. See BidenSpace, TrumpSpace, Transition for the last iterations of this activity.

Keith’s note: I was on Deutsche Welle tonight just after 6:00 pm EST to talk about Parker Solar Probe’s close encounter with our sun [Audio] See video below. I pre-taped a segment for CNN’s Christmas show which aired on Wednesday [Audio]. Update: I was on DW again on Friday to talk about Parker Solar Probe phoning home [Audio] See video below.

Keith’s note: “How might NASA change under Trump? Here’s what is being discussed” by Eric Berger is worth a read. FWIW I have watched Transition Team “discussions” trickle out for 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, and now 2024. Closing centers is a favorite. Poor Ames is always on the list.

Keith’s note: I just did an interview on Alhurra TV and talked about space radiation research on astronauts and its applicability to medical treatments on Earth. I actually said “spinoff” several times. If you listen to the audio you will hear that I had a two-way English/Arabic interpreter. I worked as a professional Sign language interpreter for a number of years – so I know how to de-jargonize things and parse my comments to facilitate translation. Add in the fact that the program is aimed at a general global audience with no background in NASAese and there you are. That said – I had no talking points in advance from NASA or anyone else – and only a general idea of what might be asked. Having had a real job once upon a time working in NASA space life sciences certainly helped. Alas, these days, NASA Public Affairs takes little interest in providing media who get in front of large global audiences (such as Alhurra, BBC etc.) with relevant talking points to help make the discussion more relevant. And when a non-NASA talking head gets something wrong then PAO gets upset and has meetings and complains within itself about the quality of space news coverage. Oh yes: an arabic-speaking astronaut is living on ISS and another is heading up soon. I mentioned them too. A little soft power projection – not that NASA OIIR cares. At this point if they are reading this they are rolling their eyes. Just sayin. Here’s the audio.

FYI Tom Cremins is the #NASA lead for interactions with the Biden Transition Team. Tom has done this before and always does a good job. — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) November 24, 2020

Keith’s note: Here we go again. Its presidential transition team season and all the space fans are lining up trying to get their ideas in front of the new Administration. As is usually the case someone starts a white paper and looks for supporters who invariably start to edit and nick pick and add wish lists. Space organizations such as the Space Foundation, the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, the Satellite Industry Association, and the Aerospace Industries Association are supporting this particular white paper/position paper effort. There may be other organizations lurking in the shadows. Meanwhile, organizations such as the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and the AIAA are shunning the effort. For now. Other organizations have not been approached. Then there’s swarm of space advocacy groups, pundits, and thought influencers, whose views will be all over the map. Welcome to the space community.