Trump White House drops diversity plan for Moon landing it created back in 2019
About five years ago, the Trump-appointed administrator of NASA, Jim Bridenstine, revealed the name of the program that would return humans to the Moon. It was to be Artemis, from a Greek goddess who was the twin sister of Apollo.
The symbolism was clear. NASA’s second human program to the Moon would be different: We were going to stay this time, there would be more international partnership, and instead of being all-male, the crews would include women. Shortly thereafter, NASA began to refer to Artemis as a program that would land the “first woman” on the Moon. Soon, an additional bit of diversity was added: “and the first person of color.”
One of the very last acts of the first Trump administration in regard to space was to name a cadre of astronauts that would fly as part of the Artemis Program. This subset of 18 people within NASA’s corps of four dozen active astronauts skewed significantly more female and minority than the general corps.
