Once upon a time, NASA was at the forefront of not just space exploration, but America in general. The space race captivated the world, and the Space Shuttle program continued carrying the imagination for years. But in the last two or three decades, NASA has fallen into oblivion, both with their budget, and in terms of relevance.
As with every federal agency in the last ten years, NASA has gone completely woke, focusing on equality hires and environmental justice. In fact, they have spent millions on DEI in the last few years, all while facing a budget shortfall everywhere else.
Marc Morano of The Climate Depot says this DEI push by NASA has caused them serious problems.
"They have budget shortfalls in every main area that is supposed to be their mission...whether that be exploration or what have you...all of them except one, and that is diversity, equity and inclusion," he says.
In total, NASA has shelled out $10 million to pay out dozens of grants and contracts aimed at DEI since 2020 alone. Meanwhile, they are multiple billions of dollars short of funding for their current missions, firing people over budgetary concerns. They are even reportedly out of money to maintain their multibillion-dollar space telescope.
One record even shows NASA approved $150,000 in funds to Columbia University to pair 'earth observations and socioeconomic data.' Seems super useful in terms of outer space.
People also just do not care about NASA anymore. Space and astronomy used to captivate Americans for years. Now, social media does. Really, you can argue NASA lost its footing during the Challenger Disaster in 1986, and never recovered. Add in the Columbia Disaster in 2003, and you have failed expectations, and imaginative minds lost.
"The space shuttles were the last thing to capture the imagination of the public...then that ended disastrously, and they are not even backing the program now," he says. "They are no longer competing in the world, they are just competing for which federal agency can 'out woke' each other."
There was also another $250,000 grant paid to Los Angeles as part of their Predictive Environmental Analytics and Community Engagement for Equity and Environmental Justice (PEACE) program. They did that so the city would provide pollution data to its residents, in a way which 'works across communities and cultural differences pollutants.' They essentially want to prove pollutants are racist or fascist, and only smog up low-income areas.
They have their toes dipped in DEI, the green agenda, and it is hurting their bottom line now. Which normally, would make a company stop. But NASA refused. They have spent another $5 million since 2022 on environmental related grants. Money that could have been spent on retaining employees.
All of this combined just shows that NASA is a shell of what it once was, and there is no coming back, especially with SpaceX taking the reins of exploration.
"Their golden age is long past...and this DEI shows that...they are failing their mission," he says.
NASA also used over $2 million to 'engrain DEI into their culture.' So, until either SpaceX goes away, or NASA stops bending the knee to the liberal agenda, they will continue sliding further into a black hole of irrelevance.