NASA
Petro ha aggiornato i dipendenti sulla prevista Reduction In Force, i temuti licenziamenti di massa.
Da NASA Watch:
RIF Tiger Team Rollout Briefing On Friday (Update)
“… our initial submission in response to President Trump’s Workforce Optimization Initiative was delivered to OPM yesterday. Over the past few weeks, an internal team has defined a strategy to identify and act on opportunities for optimizing our organization – whether by streamlining operations, reducing duplicative reporting and analysis, finding areas to accelerate decision velocity, or identifying cost-savings measures. Rather than prescribing specific changes at this point, our initial submission outlined areas we will explore to find the best approach for our agency’s future.”
// La mia personalissima interpretazione / speranza è che l’ultima frase sia un modo diplomatico per chiedere un ulteriore rinvio dei licenziamenti.
La famosa richiesta di fornire “5 bullets of what you have accomplished this week” viene istituzionalizzata e resa una incombenza settimanale. Allo scopo, è stata sviluppata internamente un’app.
Da una mail inviata da Janet Petro e riportata sempre da NASA Watch.
NASA Now Has An Official Five Things App
“Today, we will debut a new tool for the “Five Things” request. […] This secure, internal tool makes it easier for you to track and share the incredible work you do each week – streamlining reporting while giving you a running record of your contributions over time. Each week, I will continue to submit our weekly accomplishments and activities on behalf of all agency employees to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and this tool will provide a straightforward way to share your work as part of that process.”
L'interfaccia dell'app. Credit: NASA via NASA Watch.
Dal sito di Artemis sono stati cancellati i riferimenti a “the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the Moon”. Da un articolo di Ars Technica.
Another casualty is the “first woman” language within the Artemis Program. For years, NASA’s main Artemis page, an archived version of which is linked here, included the following language: “With the Artemis campaign, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.”
Nasa spokesperson Allard Beutel said in a statement emailed to the Guardian: “In keeping with the president’s executive order, we’re updating our language regarding plans to send crew to the lunar surface as part of Nasa’s Artemis campaign. We look forward to learning more from [and] about the Trump administration’s plans for our agency and expanding exploration at the moon and Mars for the benefit of all.”
Due lunghi articoli su quello che sta accadendo.
Il primo è del The New Yorker. E’ un resoconto dettagliato delle ultime settimane e contiene alcune informazioni inedite sul personale DOGE inserito alla NASA e il racconto - contestato dalla Casa Bianca - di come sia stato evitato il licenziamento dei probationary.
Inside Trump and Musk’s Takeover of NASA
Across a series of tense meetings in the first half of February, a small number of senior NASA leaders tried to persuade Acting Administrator Petro to push back forcefully against the order to fire probationary employees. Two of my sources told me that, at one point, Nicola (Nicky) Fox, the leader of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, and others argued that missions were going to fail—not years in the future but potentially weeks in the future. (The White House official said that my sources’ account was “not accurate.”) Some workers whose jobs were at risk were at Vandenberg Space Force Base, in California, and Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, where spacecraft were being prepped to be launched within weeks. Would they be able to devote all of their focus to life-and-death duties, or would they be worrying about looming mortgage and tuition payments?
According to my sources, Petro listened to the arguments. O.K., she said: We’re going to say we don’t have any expendable workers. It was a bold decision: the Trump Administration would have no qualms about firing an interim appointee such as Petro.
Il secondo articolo è un editoriale di The Verge che si interroga sull’impatto della fine delle politiche anti-discriminatorie nell’ambito della “space science”, dalla NASA alle università.
Space science is under threat from the anti-DEI purge
The Verge spoke to nine people working in space science (others declined to speak to the media out of concern for their positions), several of whom described receiving conflicting emails from their university employers on what work is or is not allowed, and on what initiatives are being supported, with guidance changing daily. A general atmosphere of fear and worry is leading many to keep their heads down in hopes that their research may remain unaffected.
Anche l’Olanda si appresta a lanciare una iniziativa per reclutare ricercatori negli Stati Uniti.
Netherlands launches fund to lure top scientists, like those fleeing the U.S.
“The world is changing. Tensions are rising. We see more and more scientists looking for a new place to continue their work,” Bruins wrote in a letter to the Tweede Kamer. “I want more top international scientists to come here. After all, top scientists are gold for our country and for Europe.” […]
Dutch and American researchers have already begun informal discussions, according to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). “We will see a battle for talent, especially in areas like mathematics and technology, where there are severe labor shortages,” said KNAW president Marileen Dogterom. “But right now, our main duty is to support free science.”
Ammirevole.
