NASA cutting programs, workforce to comply with Trump order

NASA will close several offices and reduce its workforce to comply with an executive order from President Donald Trump.

NASA's Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy will be shuttered, as will the Office of the Chief Scientist, and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and Accessibility Branch of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the agency announced in an emailed statement today (March 10).

"To optimize our workforce, and in compliance with an Executive Order, NASA is beginning its phased approach to a reduction in force, known as a RIF," NASA officials said in the statement. "A small number of individuals received notification Monday they are a part of NASA's RIF. If they're eligible, those employees may opt to participate in the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, or VERA, or complete the RIF process."

The NASA statement did not say how many employees would be laid off, nor did it identify the executive order in question. But it's likely this one, which Trump issued on Jan. 20 — the first day of his second term as president.

Related: Trump orders interim NASA chief to end DEI initiatives

That order instructs the head of the Office of Management and Budget, the attorney general and the director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to "coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and 'diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility' (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear."

On Jan. 22, NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro sent out an agency-wide memo announcing that steps were being taken to "close all agency DEIA offices and end all DEIA-related contracts" in accordance with the above executive order, as well as a second, related one.

The Jan. 22 memo — which apparently was drafted by higher-ups in the OPM, as versions of it went out across multiple federal agencies — also directs employees to report attempts to hide, disguise or otherwise protect DEI programs. Failure to inform on such efforts within 10 days "may result in adverse consequences," according to the memo.

More changes could be coming soon to NASA as well. For example, Ars Technica's Eric Berger recently reported that the Trump administration plans to cut funding for NASA science programs in the next fiscal year, perhaps by as much as 50%.

Such a dramatic reduction, if enacted, "would be nothing short of an extinction event for space science and exploration in the United States," according to The Planetary Society, a nonprofit exploration advocacy group.

We should learn the extent of the plan in short order; the Trump administration is expected to release its budget request in the next few weeks.