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In the corridors of NASA buildings across the United States, Pride flags and pictures celebrating women in science are being taken down. Scientists are adding space-mission stickers to their laptops to cover ones that displayed rainbows and other symbols of LGBT+ support. Employees are stripping pronouns from their e-mail signatures and holding darkly humorous conversations in which they try to avoid saying any pronouns at all.

These and other changes are rippling through NASA, which is purging programmes involving diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) throughout the agency. The directive to do so came from US President Donald Trump, who on 20 January issued an order to eliminate DEI initiatives across the federal government.

“I get a sinking feeling in my stomach when I have to check my [work] e-mail,” says an early-career NASA scientist, who asked to remain anonymous because of concerns about their career prospects. “Every time I reload it, it’s like, ‘oh god, will there be some new heinous missive in there?’”

Nature spoke to scientists inside and outside NASA about the impacts of its DEI changes — and heard anger, fear and confusion. Although the orders affect all federal agencies, they are keenly felt at NASA, which has a long history of working towards inclusivity. In 2020, Trump appointee Jim Bridenstine, then head of NASA, added inclusion to the agency’s list of core values, joining safety, integrity, teamwork and excellence. That fifth value has now been removed from many NASA websites.

“How do you go from something being so important that it’s a pillar [of the agency], to being so reviled that it’s off of everything?” asks Julie Rathbun, a planetary scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

“It feels like a betrayal by NASA,” says Kas Knicely, a planetary geophysicist at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. “It’s inefficient, it’s wasteful, and it’s also just messed up.”

In a statement, NASA said the agency “is committed to engaging the best talent to drive innovation and achieve our mission for the benefit of all. As new guidance comes in, we’re working to adhere to new requirements in a timely manner.”

A changed agency

NASA’s push towards inclusivity is one of the most visible in the US government. In the 1950s and 1960s, all of the agency’s astronauts were white men. By 1978, it had bowed to internal and external pressure and had chosen several women and people of colour to fly to space. Today, NASA’s astronauts, as well as its world-renowned scientific and engineering teams, are measurably diverse.

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