NASA veterans say political pressure and slashed funding are destroying mankind's ability to go on future missions
In a Monday letter titled the "Voyager Declaration," addressed to NASA's interim administrator and US transportation secretary Sean Duffy, the group slammed the Trump administration's recent actions against the space agency.
"The last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA's workforce," the letter said.
The group said recent policies proposed by the administration threaten to waste public resources, compromise human safety, and weaken national security.
The letter to Duffy comes after the Trump administration axed three NASA departments as part of larger cuts carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency. Several NASA employees were also fired as a result of the DOGE cuts.
"Interim Administrator Duffy, we urge you not to implement the harmful cuts proposed by this administration, as they are not in the best interest of NASA," the letter read.
The group said that the funding cuts could compromise safety for future missions, which was "a dangerous turn away from the lessons learned following the Columbia disaster."
In 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it reentered Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board.
The declaration added that cutting funding for missions and shutting them down was not reversible.
"Once operational spacecraft are decommissioned, they cannot be turned back on. Additionally, cancelling missions in development threatens to end the next generation of crucial observations," the group said in the document.
A total of 287 current and former NASA employees who signed the declaration, per its website.
In response to the letter, NASA's press secretary, Bethany Stevens, said to CNN that the agency would never compromise on safety.
"Any reduction — including our current voluntary reduction — will be designed to protect safety-critical roles," she said to CNN.
Employees of the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency released similar declarations slamming DOGE cuts. The cuts resulted in more than 200,000 workers across all federal agencies losing their jobs in March.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Six months in, young people have soured on Trump's job handling
Since Donald Trump took office for his second term, his job ratings have markedly declined — and more with young people than any other age group. What has made so many young Americans change their minds so quickly? For context, President Trump's electoral performance with voters under 30 improved a lot in 2024: While he lost this group to former Vice President Kamala Harris, it was by a much smaller margin than in 2020. And men under 30 ended up splitting roughly evenly between Trump and Harris. These trends prompted some observers to marvel at how conservative Gen Z had become, especially young men, and to wonder whether it marked a durable change. About half a year on from Inauguration Day, many young people have changed their minds on Trump. It looks more like many young voters gave him the benefit of the doubt when he took office, but their evaluations of him quickly started to sink. Among Americans ages 18-29, his job approval rating has fallen from a high of 55% just after he was inaugurated to 28% now. That means that half of his former approvers now disapprove. In percentage-point terms, the size of that drop is more than double what we've seen in any other age group. Which young voters have dropped off? Among young people, it's the less partisan and politically engaged who have seen the steepest drops. For example, about half of independents under 30 approved of Mr. Trump in February, but that has dropped to about one in five now. The same is true of young people who didn't vote in the 2024 election. Party identifiers and '24 voters have fallen off, too, but not to the same extent. There are also differences by gender, with young men starting out more approving of Mr. Trump than young women were. Women's ratings of the president had already begun dipping by March, while it was not until April — and the downturn in the U.S. stock market — that young men's ratings started to decline. Both have fallen steadily since then, but a faster drop among young men in the last few months has meant the gender gap in approval of Mr. Trump has shrunk. (See the bottom of this article for statistical details on estimating these smaller subgroups.) CBS News polling over the past few months offers several clues as to what young people are unhappy about these days. A majority now say Mr. Trump is doing different things than he promised during the 2024 campaign. That's a reversal in sentiment from early February, when seven in 10 said he's doing what he said he would. And it's young men who have been the most likely to flip on this question. On top of that, the administration is experiencing low points on several economic evaluations: The share of young people saying the economy is getting worse has risen to six in 10. And young Americans are less likely than older ones to see the job market as good. Overtime, young people have increasingly rated it as fairly or very in 10 also tell us that Mr. Trump's policies are making them worse off financially. That is the highest we've seen to date, and it represents a complete change from what young people expected when he was inaugurated. Back then, they were much more likely to say his policies would make them better off than worse majorities feel the Trump administration is focusing too much on tariffs (72%), deportations (64%), and ending DEI programs (55%). These shares have all grown significantly over time. By contrast, seven in 10 say the administration isn't focusing enough on lowering prices, which was a key campaign issue. Looking back and ahead… Instead of marking a permanent rightward shift, Mr. Trump's better-than-expected performance with young voters last year is beginning to look more like a temporary reaction. Indeed, less partisan voters tend to be more responsive to short-term forces, like the economic conditions that drove many at the ballot box in 2024. And when Trump was inaugurated, many young people hoped he would turn the economy around, with his initial ratings likely reflecting some optimism. This honeymoon period quickly faded. His 18-29 rating is now below Joe Biden's when he left office. Looking ahead to 2026, Republicans' electoral success may depend on both the president's numbers and youth turnout. If views of Mr. Trump's job handling don't improve over the next year, they could be a drag on GOP congressional candidates. And while young voters are less likely to turn out in non-presidential years, both the 2018 and 2022 midterms saw record numbers go to the polls, including voters under 30. In fact, in 2022, young voters turned out at a rate that came close to saving the Democrats' majority. In a tight contest, they could be pivotal again. Estimating small subgroups in polls In order to more precisely estimate trends in approval among young people, I aggregated our polls and ran a statistical model that controls for respondents' race, education level, 2024 vote, and survey date. Why take this approach? All polls have a margin of error, and the margin of error is greater for subgroups within the poll, as a function of sample size and routine weighting. So, even though young people are represented proportionate to their share of the population, estimating what percentage of them approve of the president naturally comes with a higher margin of error. It's driven by random variation in which types of young people respond to a given poll, and margins of error grow as you slice data more thinly — for instance, in disaggregating young people by gender. Since a single poll can only do so much, we can combine data across polls to boost sample sizes and gain confidence in our estimates. Aggregating surveys yields sample sizes of over 1,200 men and 1,300 women under 30 to analyze. And the model smoothens out poll-to-poll randomness within these subgroups. The modeled estimates for any given time point are consistently within range of the unmodeled survey data, typically within a few points. And importantly, they tell the same story: both young men and young women's views of Trump have worsened, and the gender gap has decreased. John Oliver: The 60 Minutes Interview Finding the plane used for Argentina's dictatorship-era "death flights" | 60 Minutes Immigration agent told 18-year-old U.S. citizen "you got no rights here" during arrest
Washington Post
2 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Trump gave the USOPC cover on its transgender athlete policy change. It could end up in court anyway
In its push to remove transgender athletes from Olympic sports, the Trump administration provided the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee a detailed legal brief on how such a move would not conflict with the Ted Stevens Act, the landmark 1978 federal statute governing the Olympic movement. That gave the USOPC the cover it needed to quietly change its policy, though the protection offers no guarantee the new policy won't be challenged in court.
New York Post
3 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump confirms possible China trip, but insists ‘not seeking' Xi summit
President Trump has revealed that he may jet over to China in the near future, but rebuffed suggestions that he is seeking a summit with Beijing counterpart Xi Jinping amid intense trade negotiations between the two economic superpowers. 'The Fake News is reporting that I am SEEKING a 'Summit' with President Xi of China. This is not correct, I am not SEEKING anything!' Trump wrote on Truth Social late Monday from Scotland, where he wrapped up a five-day visit Tuesday. 'I may go to China, but it would only be at the invitation of President Xi, which has been extended. Otherwise, no interest! Thank you for your attention to this matter.' Staffers for Trump and Xi have held discussions about setting up a meeting between the two leaders, potentially on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in South Korea, which takes place Oct. 30-Nov. 1, Reuters reported last week. It is unclear whether any discussions of Trump traveling to China directly have been broached. 3 President Trump confirmed ongoing talks with China about him meeting with leader Xi Jinping. Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images 3 President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping's last in-person meeting took place in 2019. XinhuaTrump and Xi last met face-to-face in June 2019 on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan. The US and China have until Aug. 12 to reach a full-fledged trade agreement following a months-long truce that has seen duties temporarily come down from up to 145% on Chinese exports to the US and 125% on American goods. Negotiators from Washington and Beijing are holding a third round of talks this week in Stockholm. 'We have a good relationship with China,' Trump told reporters Monday at his Turnberry club on the west coast of Scotland. 'China's tough.' In 2024, China was the third-largest US trading partner among individual nations — behind only Mexico and Canada — with trade between the two nations amounting to $582.4 billion. Further complicating negotiations is Trump's looming threat to impose secondary tariffs of 100% against countries that trade with Moscow until the Kremlin ends its invasion of Ukraine and agrees a peace deal. China and India, in particular, have continued to purchase energy from Russia throughout the 41-month-old war on Ukraine. China has also been accused of providing Moscow's arms industry with critical supplies. 3 The Trump administration is currently involved in trade negotiations with China. Getty Images Beyond trade tensions, US officials have repeatedly warned about Chinese cyber attacks, such as the Salt Typhoon operation that breached American telecommunications systems. On Monday, the Financial Times reported that the Trump administration blocked Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te from stopping in New York City during a planned diplomatic visit to Central America later this year. China has long claimed sovereignty over the island state of Taiwan, which has its own currency, military and government. The US adheres to the One China Policy on paper, which acknowledges Beijing's claim, but takes no position on it.
