NASA may be still committed to landing the first woman and person of color on the Moon sometime in 2027 as part of its Artemis III mission — but you wouldn’t know it by visiting the agency’s landing page for the mission, which no longer includes any mentions of “diversity, equity, or inclusion” (DEI) on president Donald Trump’s orders.
First spotted by British science journalist Oliver Morton, NASA’s DEI purge has reached the page for its Artemis mission, which until at least February 28 included references to the agency’s commitment to “land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.”
“A giant step back for womankind?” Morton mused.
In a statement to The Guardian, a NASA spokesperson said that the change had been made “in keeping with the president’s executive order” — a reference to one of Trump’s many anti-DEI orders issued in the first weeks of his new term.
Notably, NASA’s statement did not indicate whether the agency has planned any changes to the Artemis program, which was launched during Trump’s first term and ironically designed to promote inclusion.
As such, we don’t know whether the agency is still planning to send veteran astronauts Christina Koch and Victor Glover, who are female and Black, respectively, on a trip around the Moon and back as part of NASA’s Artemis II mission slated for next year.
But it’s possible they’re still on the roster. In a statement to Futurism, a NASA spokesperson said that it’s “important to note that the change in language does not indicate a change in crew assignments.”
The crew for NASA’s first attempt to land the first astronauts on the Moon in over half a century has yet to be announced. The mission is tentatively scheduled for mid-2027.
The latest change is part of a much greater purge of any references to DEI on government websites. Earlier this year, workers at NASA were, as 404 Media reported, ordered to immediately “scrub all [diversity, equity, and inclusion] related or DEI adjacent topics and terms from all external websites.”
Among the terms to be deleted was “anything specifically targeting women,” such as “women in leadership.”
“This is a drop everything and reprioritize your day request,” the directive read.
While the Trump administration’s anti-DEI push has touched every corner of government, it’s been particularly intense at NASA — possibly because that agency used to be considered a pioneer in diverse hiring, dating back to the launch of the Space Shuttle program in the late 1970s.
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