TWiS 185: Gutting Goddard - Dismantling a NASA Center

As you may or may not know, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is in the administration's crosshairs. With cuts to their budget and staffing beginning under Elon Musk's DOGE, it has taken a different form with the government shutdown. Employees furloughed or retired from critical programs, laboratories shuttered, and entire facilities gutted--all without the approval of Congress. By the time the shutdown is over, NASA's primary research center--and the one most responsible for what many are now calling "the C-word," climate science--will be a shell of its former self. Josh Dinner, who recently completed a months-long investigative report, joins us. Also: Jared Isaacman is back in the running as NASA chief, the 25th anniversary of the ISS, and China now working with the US on orbital dangers.

Headlines:

• Trump Renominates Jared Isaacman as NASA Chief, Sparking Political Drama • 25 Years of Continuous Astronaut Presence on the International Space Station • China Initiates Rare Satellite Collision Avoidance With NASA • Apollo-Era Radio Telescope That Spied on Soviet Satellites Up for Sale • Mars ESCAPADE Missions Twin Probes Prepare for Launch on New Glenn Rocket

Main Topic: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Crisis

• Goddard Hit by Accelerated Building Closures and Funding Cuts • NASA Employees and Lawmakers Accuse Agency Leadership of Breaking the Law • Climate Science and Political Motives at the Core of Goddard's Struggles • Union Power Stripped After NASA's Reclassification as National Security Agency • High-Profile Missions Like Hubble, the Nancy Roman Space Telescope, and LISA Facing Uncertainty • Loss of Talent and Institutional Knowledge Threatens Future Space Projects • Congress and the Public Urged to Support, But Outlook Remains Grim • Could New Leadership Reverse the Changes Brought to Goddard, or Reinforce Goddard's Decline?

Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik

Guest: Josh Dinner

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