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CNBC
5 days ago
- Politics
- CNBC
Investing in Space: NASA's months of reckoning
For half a year now, NASA's been weathering a storm on every front, from its budget to its chain of command and potential program terminations. Employee uproar was an inevitable chapter of the saga. A group of 360 current and former NASA employees have penned a letter rebuking "rapid and wasteful changes" across staffing, mission and budgetary cuts at 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 says, noting concerns that the proposed downsizing in personnel and funding are "arbitrary and have been enacted in defiance of congressional appropriations law" and that "the consequences for the agency and the country alike are dire." Signatories of the letter, titled the Voyager Declaration, urge the U.S. leadership not to implement "harmful" cuts and dispute "non-strategic staffing reductions," curtailing research projects, as well as cancelling contracts and participation in international missions or assignments for which Congress has already appropriated funding. It's no small list of objections raised at a time of broader uncertainty at NASA, which faces significant — and long chronicled — declines in funding and staff, amid a broader White House push to shrink down the federal workforce. "NASA will never compromise on safety. Any reductions—including our current voluntary reduction—will be designed to protect safety-critical roles," NASA Spokesperson Bethany Stevens said in an emailed statement. "The reality is that President Trump has proposed billions of dollars for NASA science, demonstrating an ongoing commitment to communicating our scientific achievements. To ensure NASA delivers for the American people, we are continually evaluating mission lifecycles, not on sustaining outdated or lower-priority missions." Adding to the tumult, NASA on Monday announced the high-level exit of Makenzie Lystrup, who will end her two-year stint as Goddard Space Flight Center director on Aug. 1. NASA says the step was communicated internally before any knowledge of the letter. It's not the first loss from the agency's senior ranks in recent months: Laurie Leshin stepped down from the director post of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in June. And more exits could be forthcoming: at the start of the month, Politico reported that at least 2,145 senior-level employees could depart NASA, many serving in core mission sets. Throughout, NASA — notable for both its own achievements and its substantial contracts to the U.S. private space industry — has remained without long-term leadership, after U.S. President Donald Trump's initial pick, tech billionaire and Elon Musk ally Jared Isaacman, was unexpectedly removed from consideration back in May. Sean Duffy, Trump's transportation secretary, was appointed to hold up the fort as NASA's interim administrator just this month. Inevitably, there's money on the line. NASA clinched a budget of $24.875 billion last year — 8.5% under its initial request and 2% below the funding of 2023 — that was matched in 2025. Under the Trump administration, the agency battled the possibility of a roughly 25% budget trim in 2026, although the U.S. House of Appropriations subcommittee has pushed back on these cuts. If enacted, the Trump funding proposal of $18.8 billion would have been the smallest NASA budget since before the U.S.' first crewed Moon landing via the Apollo 11 mission, commemorated this week on July 20. In a Monday statement, Trump said his administration is "building on the legacy of Apollo 11" and endorsed NASA's initiatives focused on "returning Americans to the Moon —this time to stay — and putting the first boots on Mars." Colonizing the red planet has been a vocally stated objective of the U.S. president since his January return to office, echoing the ambitions of his then-ally Musk. The two have since parted ways through an explosive rift, but the dream to land U.S. astronauts on the Moon and Mars has gripped the nation, with a respective 67% and 65% of those surveyed in a CBS News/YouGov pollv now in favor.
Boston Globe
21-07-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
Hundreds of NASA employees, past and present, sign letter of formal dissent
In an email statement, Bethany Stevens, the NASA press secretary, said NASA would never compromise on safety. 'Any reductions — including our current voluntary reduction — will be designed to protect safety-critical roles,' she said. Advertisement 'To ensure NASA delivers for the American people, we are continually evaluating mission lifecycles, not on sustaining outdated or lower-priority missions,' Stevens said. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Upheaval within NASA continued Monday, when Makenzie Lystrup, director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., announced she was 'stepping aside' on Aug. 1. In an email sent to center employees at 12:45 p.m. and shared with The New York Times, she did not give a reason for her departure. Cynthia Simmons, the center's deputy director, will take over as acting director. 'I am honored to have been part of this incredible journey with you,' Lystrup wrote. The NASA letter follows similar letters of criticism by federal employees at the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the NIH director, said he welcomed respectful dissent, but the EPA placed 144 employees who signed that agency's letter on leave. Advertisement 'We're scared of retaliation,' said Monica Gorman, an operations research analyst at Goddard. She said that staff members 'go to the bathroom to talk to each other, and look under the stalls to make sure that no one else is there before we talk.' Gorman is one of 287 current and former NASA employees who signed the letter, although more than half did so anonymously. More than 15,000 people work at the space agency. Prominent scientists outside of NASA, including 20 Nobel Prize winners, also offered their names in support. The NIH letter inspired some people at NASA to put together a similar effort. The NIH letter writers had called their dissent the 'Bethesda Declaration' — the agency is in Bethesda, Md. — and the NASA letter writers called theirs the 'Voyager Declaration,' in honor of Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, the two NASA space probes launched in the 1970s that continue to function as they fly through interstellar space. 'One of the messages that NASA management has been passing down to every employee is that no one is coming to save us, including Congress,' said one of the organizers of the letter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear for retaliation. 'So the Voyager Declaration is one effort to raise our voices and speak out to save ourselves,' the person added. The letter is framed as a 'formal dissent' — an official process at NASA for registering disagreements that managers may not want to hear. It was part of changes instituted at NASA after the losses of the Columbia and Challenger space shuttles when concerns of some engineers were brushed aside. Advertisement Stand Up for Science, a nonprofit organization that has organized opposition to the Trump administration's cutbacks of science research, has helped coordinate the letters to the three agencies. In its budget request to Congress in June, the Trump administration proposed slashing NASA's budget by almost 25 percent. NASA's science mission directorate, which includes earth science, solar system missions and astrophysics, would face a cut of 47 percent, to $3.9 billion from $7.3 billion. Nineteen currently operating science missions, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Juno mission at Jupiter and the two Orbiting Carbon Observatories, would be turned off and discarded. In her statement, Stevens said, 'The reality is that President Trump has proposed billions of dollars for NASA science, demonstrating an ongoing commitment to communicating our scientific achievements.' Congress does not appear to agree with making draconian cuts. A Senate subcommittee proposed providing $7.3 billion for NASA's science mission directorate for fiscal year 2026, the same amount as the current year. Its counterpart in the House of Representatives was less generous, proposing $6 billion for the science missions. While NASA has so far avoided widespread layoffs, thousands of employees have left or are planning to leave under early retirement and buyout offers. 'Some I know have left because they want to make space for other younger people to stay,' Gorman said. One complaint of the letter writers is that NASA leaders have made decisions based on the president's proposed cuts, without waiting to see what Congress will provide. Another concern is that even if Congress provides money for science missions, the administration could refuse to spend it. Advertisement Last week, in a letter to Duffy, two Democratic members of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology -- Reps. Zoe Lofgren of California and Valerie Foushee of North Carolina -- accused NASA of illegally implementing Trump's priorities. 'Congress directs NASA to spend money on certain missions, programs and priorities; and Congress sets the policies that NASA must implement,' Lofgren and Foushee wrote. 'These congressional actions are not friendly requests. They are the law.' This article originally appeared in
Daily Mail
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE A hero stranger saved my husband's life when he had a heart attack at a gas station... now he's marrying my daughter and they're expecting their second baby
It was a normal Thursday afternoon when Gary Stevens popped down to the local petrol station - and one that changed his family's lives forever. The father-of-one collapsed after suffering a heart attack while a worried man parked in the van behind him rushed to his aid. That man was Mark Taylor - and now he's about to marry Gary's daughter Bethany. The couple's love story is one that started with tragedy, Gary's wife and Bethany's mum, Anna Stevens, recalls. On January 27, 2022, Gary, of Watford, was washing his car when he suddenly went into cardiac arrest. Noticing that Gary had suddenly collapsed, Mark, who was sat in the car behind him, instantly ran over to assist him. He then tirelessly administered CPR for up to 20 minutes before the emergency services arrived. As a result of Mark's quick-thinking, Gary, then 56, survived the near-fatal attack, with paramedics praising his 'incredible' ability to keep the father-of-one alive. The hero stranger also quickly hunted down Gary's phone to call for family - and they all rushed down to be at his side as he was raced to hospital. Now, in recognition of Mark's incredible life-saving act, Anna has set up a GoFundMe page to help raise funds for the pair's honeymoon and to also contribute to their children's futures. Sadly, due to an accumulation of long-term health complications, Gary sadly passed away just five months later - with Mark serving as one of the pallbearers at his funeral. But in a heartwarming end to what could have been an entirely tragic story, Gary's daughter, 26, and Mark, 34, are set to marry in January. The pair, who share an eight-month-old son Zack, are also expecting a second baby in December. Adding that while she 'lost a husband, I gained a son', Anna has no doubt that her former husband would be 'over the moon' that his beloved daughter is set to wed the courageous man that once helped save his life. Speaking to MailOnline, Anna said: 'Finding out about what happened to Gary was absolutely horrific. When we left the petrol station, I said to Mark "let me take your number so I can give you some updates." 'We kept in touch and when Gary came out of hospital after about 10 weeks the first person he wanted to see was Mark because he owed his life to him. 'On the night Mark came to visit him he brought him a welcome home cake and it was just so lovely for the two of them to sit down and chat properly.' Mark and Bethany began their unexpected relationship a year after Gary's tragic passing. Given the unique circumstances, Anna insisted that Mark was 'incredibly respectful' as they navigated the early days, even ensuring to check that Anna was happy with the proposed relationship before the pair moved forward. She added: 'They went for a drink as friends and I think they just had this great connection. It's the perfect end to the story. 'Gary would not have survived the cardiac arrest if it was not for Mark. The fact that he helped on the day and I got that extra time with my husband and now have the most incredible grandson, I'll never be able to thank him enough. 'I know Gary would be thrilled that they are together, he loved Mark to pieces. I tell my grandson everyday what an incredible father he has and how Daddy saved Grandad's life.' Anna, who was married to her husband for 25 years prior to his death, even previously donated a kidney to her husband in a bid to help him manage his diabetes which had led to failing kidneys. Speaking to MailOnline about the incredible transplant in 2018, she described it as the 'easiest decision' she had ever made, while Gary said: 'She put her life at risk for mine. 'There's only two words to describe her: "My angel".' Now, as Bethany and Mark eagerly await their wedding day, the couple are adamant that Gary's spirit will be ever-present. Previously speaking to MailOnline about donating a kidney to her beloved husband, Ms Stevens described it as the 'easiest decision' she had ever made, while Gary said: 'She put her life at risk for mine. 'There's only two words to describe her: "My angel" Given her father's absence, Bethany is set to be walked down the aisle by her 'incredible' godfather Alex. As Gary's best friend of more than 40 years, Anna praised him as 'invaluable' in helping the family navigate their grief and ongoing life without Gary. Meanwhile Anna, who is now hoping to honour Mark with a Pride of Britain Award for his life-saving act, described her soon to be son-in-law as 'proof that good still exists in the world'. She added: 'He's just an incredible man. Many would have seen somebody passed out like that and froze or not know what to do, but despite having no first aid training Mark never hesitated and immediately helped out. 'Gary would no doubt be looking down and smiling at how things have turned out, I believe fate put those two men at that petrol station at the right time. It's incredible'.
Gizmodo
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Gizmodo
As Trump Scrubs Climate Reports, NASA Breaks Its Promise to Save Them
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has launched a major effort to limit public access to information about climate change. After the president canned the official government site that hosted the national climate assessments earlier this month, NASA has broken its promise to publish them on its own site. On Monday, July 14, NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens told the Associated Press that NASA will not host any data from which served as the official website for the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP). This interagency program publishes national climate assessments about every four years as mandated by the Global Change Research Act of 1990. These reports provide authoritative scientific information about climate change risks, impacts, and responses in the U.S. After the USGCRP website went dark in early July, the White House and NASA said the space agency would publish the reports on its site to comply with the 1990 law, according to the AP. Apparently, that is no longer the case. 'NASA has no legal obligations to host data,' NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens said in an email. Fortunately, copies of past reports are still available in NOAA's library, and the latest report and its interactive atlas can be found here. The Trump administration essentially dismantled the USGCRP in April when it removed federal employees from their positions. It also terminated the program's contract with ICF International, a technology and policy consulting firm that provided technical, analytic, and programmatic support for the USGCRP and particularly its national climate assessments. Later that month, the administration dismissed all scientists working on the next assessment, which was supposed to be published in 2028. Now, past reports are more inaccessible to the public than ever before. Eviscerating the USGCRP and squirreling away its national climate assessments are just part of the all-out assault the Trump administration has launched against U.S. climate information. Thousands of employees across other federal agencies that study and track global warming—including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—have lost their jobs since Trump took office in January. His administration has also frozen climate-related grants, killed major federal climate programs, proposed significant cuts to federal research programs, and purged references to climate change from federal websites. Trump's effort to obscure the realities of climate change will have real consequences, but it's ultimately futile. Americans confront this crisis every single day as they navigate new challenges driven by rising global temperatures. The fifth national climate assessment, published in 2023, warned of 'potentially catastrophic outcomes' for the nation as climate change exacerbates extreme weather. Many parts of the U.S. are already feeling these effects. Multiple severe flooding events have already killed scores of Americans in the first half of 2025. Most recently, at least two people in New Jersey died when torrential rain triggered flash floods across much of the Northeast on Monday, July 14, and over 100 people in Texas—including at least 36 children in Kerr County—died during the devastating July 4 flash floods. While it's difficult to link a single weather event directly to climate change, numerous studies show that rising global temperatures are increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme rain in the U.S. and around the world, thus heightening flood risk. This is because warmer air increases both evaporation and the amount of water vapor the atmosphere can hold. An atmosphere that contains more moisture can produce more intense precipitation events, which is exactly what the U.S. has been experiencing lately. Wildfires are also becoming more difficult to manage. This was apparent in January, when more than a dozen fast-moving, destructive wildfires decimated parts of Los Angeles. In Arizona, firefighters have struggled to contain two active blazes near the Grand Canyon's North Rim that destroyed a historic lodge, triggered evacuations, and forced officials to close this part of the national park on Sunday, July 13. Both fires remained 0% contained as of Tuesday, July 15. In the fifth national climate assessment, experts concluded that fires in the Southwest have become larger and more severe, according to Human-driven warming is playing a significant role in this trend, drying out the vegetation that feeds wildfires. One study found that climate change may be responsible for nearly two-thirds of the observed increase in summer fire weather conditions over the past 40 years. Everywhere Americans look, they see evidence of climate change. It's not just deadly floods and rampant wildfires—it's severe heatwaves, shifting seasons, and sinking shorelines. It's farmers losing their livelihoods, families facing rising insurance costs, and infrastructure buckling under extreme weather conditions. Making it harder to access information about this ongoing crisis won't shield the public from its effects, but it will make it more difficult for governments and communities to adapt to them.
New York Times
15-07-2025
- Science
- New York Times
NASA Website Will Not Provide Previous National Climate Reports
NASA said on Monday that it would not host on its website the National Climate Assessments — reports mandated by Congress that detail the ways climate change is affecting every part of the country and how communities can respond. Earlier this month, the Trump administration took down the webpage, that provided the reports, which have been regularly published since 2000. A spokeswoman for NASA said at the time, 'All preexisting reports will be hosted on the NASA website, ensuring continuity of reporting.' But in a reversal on Monday, the same spokeswoman, Bethany Stevens, said that NASA would not host the archived reports. 'The USGCRP met its statutory requirements by presenting its reports to Congress,' she said, referring to the United States Global Change Research Program. 'NASA has no legal obligations to host data.' She added: 'To clarify, is not a NASA domain. We never did and will not host the data.' As of Monday night, the reports remained available on the documents repository of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent agency of the National Weather Service. The latest assessment, the fifth, came out in 2023. The Trump administration cut funding earlier this year to the Global Change program and dismissed scientists who had volunteered to produce the next climate assessment planned for 2028. Work on the sixth report had already begun when the Global Change Research Program lost funds. Authors had outlined their chapters, some of which were set to have special emphasis on mitigating climate change and adapting to its effects. State and local policymakers, researchers and private industry use the reports, and the shuttered website had also been one of the main federal sources of information on climate change. Legislation mandates that the climate assessments be made available to Congress and to federal agencies. Two scientific associations, the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union, previously announced that they would publish work originally intended for the sixth assessment.
