This Week in Space 185

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?

Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space.

Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts!
Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

• Tech: NASA's Goddard Cuts
• Transcripts: This Week in Space 185 Transcript

Links

• Trump renominates billionaire Jared Isaacman for NASA chief in major reversal
• China reached out to NASA to avoid a potential satellite collision in 1st-of-its-kind space cooperation
• This Apollo-era radio telescope in the NC mountains once spied on Soviet satellites. Now it's for sale
• The International Space Station will fall to Earth in 2030. Can a private space station really fill its gap?
• NASA's new Mars mission: These twin satellites could reveal how the Red Planet lost its atmosphere
• NASA is sinking its flagship science center during the government shutdown — and may be breaking the law in the process, critics say
• New Democratic Staff Report: Direct Evidence Trump Administration Has Been Illegally Imposing President’s Proposed Budget Cuts at NASA Since Early Summer—Threatening Safety, Mission, Science
• Goddard Missions
• Acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy says the agency will 'move aside' from climate sciences to focus on exploring moon and Mars
• NASA to eliminate chief scientist position
• GESTA IFPTE LOCAL 29
• 'NASA is under attack.' Space agency employees and lawmakers protest mass layoffs, science cuts amid budget turmoil