NASA Promoted ‘Gender Affirmation’ and Workplace Diversity During DEI Spending Spree, Report Finds; NASA’S “ONE GIANT LEAP” TOWARD DEI: The Space Agency Spent Heavily On Equity, Gender Affirmation, While Contract Mishaps and Procurement Nightmares Piled Up

NASA Promoted ‘Gender Affirmation’ and Workplace Diversity During DEI Spending Spree, Report Finds:

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration introduced a sweeping number of new diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives under the Biden-Harris administration, a report released Wednesday found.

NASA enacted various DEI-related efforts over the past four years, including issuing guidelines to its staff on ways to better support any employees going through “gender transition,” and introducing coursework that heavily promoted diversity, according to a new report from OpenTheBooks.

The government agency also spent hefty sums on DEI-related contracts between 2021 and 2024, such as shelling out $2,366,122 to LMI Consulting to “incorporate and deeply engrain” DEI and accessibility “in the culture and business” of NASA alongside an additional $182,281 for “diversity training.” Another contract to the Neuroleadership Institute provided $90,000 for “diversity training,” the report found.

NASA also awarded a $74,000 grant to Cook Ross, Inc. for “Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Training,” OpenTheBooks found. The agency also provided DEI-related grants to some universities and nonprofit institutes, such as a $100,000 grant to the Planetary Science Institute to “help NASA’s planetary science workforce to become more diverse and equitable” because “diversity and inclusiveness along gender, ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation, generational, and other axes is a business as well as a social imperative,” according to the report’s findings.

In 2022, NASA provided employees with a 22-page information packet titled “NASA Guidance for Supporting Gender Transition/Affirmation in the Workplace,” according to a document a whistleblower shared with OpenTheBooks. The document aimed to “help all individuals at NASA” maintain “an inclusive and supportive workplace for gender transition and affirmation.”

Notably, the document also told NASA staffers that “a transitioning employee may use the restroom, locker room, or other facility that they feel most comfortable using.” The packet said that if another employee has a concern about this, “the transitioning employee should not be asked or required to use an alternate facility in order to accommodate such concerns.”

Moreover, the document also encouraged NASA staff to “be willing and available to collaborate with the transitioning employee on the development, implementation, and evolution of a Workplace Gender.” —>READ MORE HERE

NASA’S “ONE GIANT LEAP” TOWARD DEI:

The space agency spent heavily on equity, gender affirmation, while contract mishaps and procurement nightmares piled up.

On June 6, 2024, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore arrived at the International Space Station on a Boeing Starliner space craft for an eight-day mission. This was Starliner’s first crewed mission to the ISS. Safety concerns with the Starliner arose during its flight to ISS as the capsule experienced helium leaks and thruster malfunctions.  

Boeing and NASA engineers spent several weeks determining if the issue could be fixed, but Starliner was ultimately not deemed safe enough to carry the astronauts. The capsule returned to earth, unmanned, in September 2024.  

SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, was selected to bring the astronauts back again, and the rescue mission is upon us this week.

The scandal has put a spotlight on NASA, so Open the Books decided to take a closer look at its recent activities and spending.

Embedding DEI into every agency, even NASA, was a mission of the Biden Administration, and one which the new Trump Administration has vowed to reverse. We’re investigating the different ways DEI manifested itself at NASA and taking a deep dive into their spending through grants and contracts – especially with Boeing and SpaceX.

With an annual budget of $25 billion, NASA is one of the smaller federal agencies. But its mission is high risk and high visibility, so it’s crucial to understand its decision making and investments.

BEFORE D OR E, THERE WAS I

NASA had embraced DEI ideology over the past several decades, including during the first Trump Administration to some degree; in 2020 then-NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine added “Inclusion” to the agency’s list of core values, joining safety, integrity, teamwork, and excellence. 

To celebrate the addition of “inclusion” as a core value, NASA’s Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity and the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer hosted Ibram X. Kendi to give a talk titled “Mission to Inclusion: Cultivating an Antiracist Workplace.” Kendi is the author of the controversial books How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America.

Email records indicate the event was coordinated with Penguin Random House, Kendi’s publisher, and that Kendi was paid for his time. We do not know how much NASA paid for the event, but a similar event with the National Institutes of Health cost $5,000. The NASA event was held in August 2020. —>READ MORE HERE

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