NASA staff are calling on Elon Musk to ‘clean house’ as it is revealed the agency blew millions of taxpayer money on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Spending reports from 2020 to 2024 showed NASA awarded grants to universities and consulting firms to support ‘environmental justice’ and initiatives that ’embrace greater diversity and inclusive practices.’
LMI consulting received over $2 million in 2023 for NASA to ’embark on a venture to incorporate and deeply engrain diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility in the culture and business.’
Another $3 million went to Booze Allen Hamilton in March to support NASA’s ‘office of diversity and equal opportunity DEI data analytic specialty,’ and $ 7 million was announced last month for six ‘minority-serving institutions.’
Amid these expenditures, staff have voiced concerns online about budget shortages, citing struggles with ‘limited funds’ due to ‘wasteful spending.’ Software engineer Kyle Sorensen told he hopes Musk will ‘clean house.’
Musk, along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, was tapped to lead the Department of Government Efficiency that aims to ‘slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies.’
A former NASA employee told DailyMail.com that NASA’s DEI is ‘destroying America’s ability to compete with China in space because the Biden-Harris administration will only fund programs that feature it.’
NASA receives, on average, about 0.4 percent of what the US government spends each year, but is still given a budget of at least $20 billion.
While the space agency has dished out millions for DEI, it’s data showed it generated more than $75.6 billionin economic output across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., in fiscal year 2023.
Yet, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) laid off five percent, 325 employees, of its workforce this week and a previous 530 that were let go in February.
The American space agency began incorporating diversity and equal employment opportunity elements into supervisors’ performance plans in 2005 but did not hold leaders fully accountable until 2021.
This shift coincided with the Biden-Harris Administration’s executive order, emphasizing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility within the federal workforce.
NASA’s spending report, first reported on by the Daily Signal, highlighted several universities that received NASA grants for environmental justice, including the Regents of the University of California that was awarded $250,000.
The fund was provided to support ‘Earth Science Applications: Equity and Environmental Justice.’
And in 2020, NASA allocated roughly $900,000 to the National Academy of Sciences, a private, non-profit organization.
The grant was for ‘increasing diversity and inclusion in the leadership of competed space missions by establishing an ad hoc committee to recommend actions to increase diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility in the leadership of space mission proposals.’
The Southeastern Universities Research Association was also given thousands of dollars to make the NASA’s heliophysics material ‘more relevant and open to the Latinx and Native American communities.’
DailyMail.com uncovered more DEI grants worth missions that had not published in the spending report, including the funds given to Booz Allen Hamilton.
The Virginia-based company is described as ‘a management and technology consulting firm that provides services to the U.S. government, military, and other organizations.’
While Booz Allen Hamilton has conducted space exploration research for NASA, it has received or been promised several grants for DEI programs.
Reports from USA Spending.gov show a $3.3 million grant proposal issued in March for ‘NASA’s Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity DEI data analytics and assessment.’
Completion of the award is scheduled for August 2025.
‘NASA JPL will lay off almost a thousand workers this year to make budget space for a plethora of ridiculous word salad DEI and environmental programs which contribute nothing to actual space exploration,’ the former NASA employee said.
‘DEI is a full employment program for people with otherwise useless degrees.’
An August report found that NASA spent more than $1 billion less on planetary science in the first two years of the decadal period (2023 – 2032).
‘If these trends continue, there will be a $5 to 11 billion shortfall in planetary science funding by 2032,’ reads the report from the Planetary Society.
‘These missing billions will reduce the rate of medium and small planetary missions, severely delay new flagship missions to Uranus and Enceladus, and severely constrain options for implementing Mars Sample Return.’
The report suggested NASA is not spending enough on planetary science, yet has gone well above budget during the Biden Administration.
Rudy Ridolfi, former Space System Commander in the US military, told DailyMail.com that ‘[the DEI funding] is a small amount relative to [NASA’s]research budget,’ but with’ the Artemis Program overruns, NASA should be conserving every dollar of their budget.’
NASA has been plagued by overrun costs during the Biden Administration, exceeding its roughly $99 billion from taxpayers by about $10 billion.
When asked about the $10 billion overrun in costs, John Conafay, former US Air Force and worked at the Office of the CFO NASA, told DailyMail.com: ‘It’s not good.’
‘Artemis was the big program for the cost overruns. The schedule set by the Biden Administration and the concept of the Lunar Gateway were just too much for NASA to accomplish,’ Ridolfi said.
Conafay explained that the US has been using cost-plus contracts since World War II. These contracts allow companies to renegotiate for more funding when they encounter delays or issues, which has contributed to NASA’s budget challenges.
‘A lot of people are out there kind of questioning like, why are we doing this,’ he said.
‘Why aren’t we doing fixed price contracts? So it improperly incentivizes free market to build what they say, they’re going to build on time and under budget. Otherwise, if that cost them right?’
DailyMail.com has contacted NASA for comment.
