NASA Scrub Promises to Land No. 1, From Web Pages to First Person on the Moon
U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign to eliminate the diversity efforts and language of government organizations has officially arrived on the moon, and NASA has removed its promise from several of its pages to get the first woman and the first person of color from several of its pages as Trump.
The space agency promised five years ago that its Artemis plan would achieve both goals, while also putting the first non-U.S. astronaut on the moon.
But this has been removed from NASA’s website recently.
According to the homepage of the Artemis program on March 14, “NASA will use innovative technology to land the first woman, the first person of color and the first partner astronaut on the moon to explore more lunar surfaces than ever before.”
By March 16, the verdict had disappeared.
The space agency also deleted a page that was also saved on the Wayback machine, advertising a 2023 graphic novel inspired by Artemis Missions, which tells a fictional story about the first woman on the moon.
Elsewhere on the NASA website, the language remains – 2023 article The mission on Artemis III states that it will “land the first woman and the first person of color” on the surface of the moon.
When asked about the demolitions, the Space Agency confirmed they were due to Trump, who issued an executive order in January against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
“In accordance with an executive order signed by President Trump, NASA is updating its language to better reflect the core mission of the Artemis movement: to return astronauts to the moon’s surface. NASA remains committed to aligning with the White House’s guidance and ensuring the mission is successful.”
It added “The language changes do not indicate changes in crew allocation.”
The website’s revision is a wave of eliminating the DEI program and review of languages that seem to celebrate diversity in a wave of corporate and government organizations. Trump mentioned such plans, which historically aimed at correcting inequalities in recruitment for “discrimination.”
According to Space.com, NASA is a U.S. government agency and NASA was reportedly directed to close offices related to DEI and accessibility in late January.
Artemis plans to be named after Apollo’s twin sisters, a Greek god who provided the name for the first lunar mission.
A total of 24 people went to the moon, all white and American, and 12 of them walked on the ground. No one has stepped on the moon’s surface since NASA astronaut Eugene Cernan completed his final Apollo mission in 1972.
NASA initially planned to land on the moon with Artemis III by 2024, but the mission has been postponed and is now expected to be no earlier than 2026.
The Artemis II crew of the fleet, which is scheduled to not land next year, consists of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
