NASA Pauses Activities of Community-Based Science Groups
NASA is pausing the activities and meetings of community-based groups that provide input to NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The plan is to lift the suspensions after NASA ensures the groups’ activities comply with directives being issued by the White House, including those that terminate government diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
Word broke late on Friday that NASA’s planetary science analysis and assessment groups — AGs — have been requested to pause all meetings and activities while the agency “continues to review and ensure compliance with presidential actions.”
The AGs are not part of NASA’s formal advisory committee structure under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). Instead, they provide feedback to NASA’s Planetary Science Division, but not recommendations.
The eight planetary science AGs are:
- Extraterrestrial Materials Analysis Group (ExMAG)
- Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG)
- Mapping and Planetary Spatial Infrastructure Team (MAPSIT)
- Mars Exploration Analysis Group (MEPAG)
- Mercury Exploration Assessment Group (MExAG)
- Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG)
- Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG), and
- Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG)
Keith Cowing of NASA Watch posted the text of the letter sent to the chairs of those groups on X (@NASAWatch). The letter included two working groups as well: the Ocean Worlds Working Group (OWWG) and the “cross-AG EDIA Working Group” (EDIA is Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility).
The #NASA Science Mission Directorate sent this memo out on Friday: “As NASA continues to review and ensure compliance with presidential actions, we are requesting that you please pause all meetings and activities of Planetary Science Analysis/Assessment Groups. This includes… pic.twitter.com/worO6TZerb
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) February 1, 2025
Today NASA confirmed the temporary restrictions to SpacePolicyOnline.com via email and indicated they affect more than just planetary science.
Cautioning that it is not a comprehensive list, NASA provided the following as additional examples (the cross-AG EDIA Working Group is the only one on both lists).
The MExAG meeting scheduled for tomorrow through Thursday at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab has been canceled.
OPAG has a meeting coming up February 25-27. An email from OPAG co-chairs Carol Paty and Morgan Cable to their members said that meeting, plus a planned Town Hall at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in March, are paused. If no guidance is received by February 7, the February 25-27 meeting will be canceled.
Vicki Hamilton, chair of MEPAG, posted in the February 2 Planetary Exploration Newsletter that she is “pausing planning for the hybrid meeting in April/May, and the SFL-SAG and Goals committee will be stopping work until further notice.”
It’s not clear how long the pause will last. The White House continues to issue Executive Orders and directives, so keeping up with them will be a challenge.
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