NASA was established in 1958, in the heart of the Cold War, as a civilian agency.

In the Declaration of Policy and Purpose, the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 reads,

Sec. 102. (a) The Congress hereby declares that it is the policy of the United States that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind.

(b) …a civilian agency exercising control over aeronautical and space activities sponsored by the United States, except … military… which such agency has responsibility for and direction of any such activity shall be made by the President in conformity with section 201 (e).

On August 28, Donald Trump signed an Executive Order 14343 completely changing that. It says,

Section 1.  Determinations.  The agencies and agency subdivisions set forth in section 2 of this order are hereby determined to have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.  It is also hereby determined that Chapter 71 of title 5, United States Code, cannot be applied to these agencies and agency subdivisions in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations.

Besides NASA, he included NOAA and the National Weather Service, among others.

The purpose for this seems to be to allow shutting down all NASA unions. Letters have gone out to the unions and to all employees telling them that collective bargaining is no longer an option for NASA employees. The goal is help fulfill the vision of government workers as powerless drones in constant fear for their jobs, I think.

A side effect does mean that NASA employees can now be considered spies. When traveling overseas, other nations should reasonably consider any NASA employee as an intelligence operative, whatever other label or purpose they may claim.

This change is pretty clearly illegal, but that doesn’t seem to matter under the current regime. It really sucks at multiple levels. I was a member of the local union at MSFC.

I joined MESA when I realized my boss seemed to be documenting a case to fire me. I honestly think he felt his career in management needed to include firing someone. He did end up firing someone on our team, which checked that box for him and he focused on other things. NASA unions were always pretty weak, but they were useful to both employees and to management, to have a way to document and clarify processes and agreements.

But it really makes me sad at a higher level that the United States of America no longer has an organization dedicated to the noble goals of the Space Act. The, “peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind.”

Here’s some more from the same document:

(c) The aeronautical and space activities of the United States shall be conducted so as to contribute materially to one or more of the following objectives:

1. The expansion of human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and space;
2. The improvement of the usefulness, performance, speed, safety, and efficiency of aeronautical and space vehicles;
3. The development and operation of vehicles capable of carrying instruments, equipment, supplies and living organisms through space;
4. The establishment of long-range studies of the potential benefits to be gained from, the opportunities for, and the problems involved in the utilization of aeronautical and space activities for peaceful and scientific purposes.
5. The preservation of the role of the United States as a leader in aeronautical and space science and technology and in the application thereof to the conduct of peaceful activities within and outside the atmosphere.
6. The making available to agencies directly concerned with national defenses of discoveries that have military value or significance, and the furnishing by such agencies, to the civilian agency established to direct and control nonmilitary aeronautical and space activities, of information as to discoveries which have value or significance to that agency;
7. Cooperation by the United States with other nations and groups of nations in work done pursuant to this Act and in the peaceful application of the results, thereof; and
8. The most effective utilization of the scientific and engineering resources of the United States, with close cooperation among all interested agencies of the United States in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort, facilities, and equipment.

Those are objectives I felt good working toward for about 38 years.

Suddenly, those are not the goals of NASA. NASA is now a three-letter agency that has four letters. The objectives are more like:

1. Fund aerospace companies loyal to the current administration;
2. Create or procure information relevant and useful to the domination of space by the Department of War;
3. The preservation of the role of the United States as a leader in aeronautical and space technology to the glory of our esteemed leader;

Note that science funding at NASA is being decimated. There isn’t going to be an actual budget at the end of this month, so the draconian cuts in the Presidents DOGEy plan (those that haven’t already been implemented) will kick in. My understanding is that several functional satellites that provide vital climate monitoring are going to be abandoned because the regime doesn’t like inconvenient facts.

Update: Some good budget news, it looks like NASA may be following Congressional, rather than Presidential budget guidance for a Continuing Resolution, according to Ars Technica.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/09/amid-budget-uncertainty-nasa-gets-some-good-news-use-house-funding-levels

References

Further Exclusions from the Federal Labor-Management Relations Program (Executive Order 14343) 

Union Letter to NASA Employees on NASAWatch

National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (Unamended)