DOGE

After almost a year of rudderless leadership, NASA may be getting an administrator before the end of the calendar year. Maybe.

On December 8, the Senate plans to vote on Jared Isaacman’s nomination to become NASA’s administrator. But first, Mr. Isaacman needs to attend a December 3rd nomination hearing with the Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Yes, this will be a repeat of the April 9th nomination hearing that was part of Mr. Isaacman’s initial White House nomination.

In his April testimony before the Senate, Mr. Isaacman emphasized three main points:

• First—American astronauts will lead the way in the ultimate ‘high ground’ of space;
• Second—We will ignite a thriving space economy in low Earth orbit; and
• Third—NASA will be a force multiplier for science.

As part of the third point, he stated:

We will leverage NASA’s scientific talent and capabilities to enable academic institutions and industry to increase the rate of world-changing discoveries. We will launch more telescopes, more probes, more rovers and endeavor to better understand our planet and the universe beyond.

That task will be all the more difficult with the departure of more than 4,000 talented NASA employees. He and the agency would have been in a better position if he had come on board before all of the efforts to downsize and diminish the “scientific talent and capabilities” at NASA. However, political temper tantrums intervened.

Given that Acting Administrator Sean Duffy’s recommended that NASA should be a sub-component of the Department of Transportation, as if it was another roads or airport project, NASA is now on a better path with outside leadership. We can only hope that Mr. Isaacman is given the budget and tools to stem the losses and start repairing the mess that DOGE and other brought to NASA.

One thing is clear – Mr. Isaacman’s good friend Elon Musk crippled NASA like many other agencies, making the job of NASA administrator that much harder.

“We dissent to implementing indiscriminate cuts to NASA science and aeronautics research because this will leave the American people without the unique public good that NASA provides. Basic research in space science, aeronautics, and the stewardship of the Earth are inherently governmental functions that cannot and will not be taken up by the private sector. Furthermore, NASA has a nearly threefold return on investment in economic activity, and supports national security by ensuring the United States maintains its lead in science and technology.”

-Just one of many points in a letter to NASA’s Interim Administrator Sean Duffy from more than 300 current and former NASA employees, labeled as the NASA Voyager Declaration. Probably employees from every federal agency could issue a similar appeal (okay, maybe not the ICE employees) given the unwarranted and poorly-targeted cuts wiping out science-driven programs. We need such statements to remember what is important about these programs, and how petty politics will diminish our nation. It’s been quite a few years since a German priest nailed a statement to a church door highlighting great abuses by Church authorities. Sometimes history rhymes.

Even if you cannot attend the protest on Monday, the site notes:

If you would rather not join this protest then there are still ways you can help. Please absolutely flood your representatives in Congress with pleas to save NASA. When you do, drive home the point that the cuts are happening now! Most of Congress seems to think that they will save NASA if they work out a budget for the coming fiscal year that funds NASA at previous levels. They don’t realize that NASA’s acting administrator, under pressure from the White House, OMB, and DOGE, are enacting “realignments” and cuts now. So please please please tell Congress that every day our nation is losing dedicated and brilliant career civil servants, contractors, and programs, that NASA is being fed into the woodchipper now. Congress must act immediately to save NASA, not wait for October 1!

For more information, visit https://sites.google.com/view/nasa-needs-help.