As President Donald Trump works to dismantle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs throughout the federal government, there’s new evidence that DEI was having a negative impact on National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions.
According to whistleblowers within NASA who shared documents with The Blaze Media, the space agency’s planned Artemis moon mission became all about promoting DEI initiatives, including a vow to “land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.”
This space mission has major ramifications for the Yellowhammer State. According to NASA’s FY23 Economic Impact Report, the Artemis program ultimately generates over 35,000 jobs and contributes $8 billion to Alabama’s economy.
The whistleblowers shared with The Blaze a 99-slide presentation called “The Artemis Brand Playbook” that would use “innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.”
One of the featured descriptions in the presentation said, “Today, we celebrate not just the successful splashdown and recovery of Artemis Orion, but the knowledge that we will put the first woman and first person of color on the Moon. This victory would not have been possible without those who have worked by our side, from small business and aerospace partners to the universities who have made this a scientific milestone.”
According to the report, one of the sources complained that the DEI initiatives were costing the agency a lot of money and becoming a distraction from the actual mission of going back to the moon.
“People will say, ‘It’s always over budget and behind schedule,’ but Artemis, I think, is a special case. We don’t even have a tower to launch the damn rocket right now,” the source said. “NASA, in my opinion, has become a glorified DEI program.”
Also according to the report, other sources talked about how the storylines in the marketing would focus on DEI.
“The way that they would cherry-pick these rags-to-riches stories of these astronauts, a lot of it was centered around DEI,” one scientist said. “It wasn’t just the astronauts; it was with researchers and scientists and the interns that they already had outlined stories of basically, you know, the ‘intern from India,’” she said, referring to one of the presentation’s listed protagonists.”
It’s likely that the DEI initiatives will now be ended within NASA since Trump signed an Executive Order banning it within the federal government.
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
