NASA Scraps Promise to Land ‘First Woman and Person of Color’ on the Moon

After years of promoting its return to the Moon with the promise of inclusion, NASA has concealed its well-publicized intent of landing a diverse crew on the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program.

NASA’s websites no longer include references to landing a crew that includes the first woman and first person of color on the Moon as part of the upcoming Artemis 3 mission, which is slated for sometime in 2027. On its websites, the agency had previously stated its intent to “land the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the Moon using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.” That phrase, however, has been removed from NASA’s website as of Friday, the Orlando Sentinel first reported.

This is the latest in a series of steps the space agency has taken to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order targeting diversity and inclusion at federal agencies. Shortly after Trump assumed office, NASA shut down offices related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA), and canceled any related contracts. Shortly afterwards, NASA employees were ordered to remove mentions of DEIA programs, underrepresented groups/people, environmental justice, and “anything specifically targeting women (women in leadership, etc.),” from the agency’s websites. NASA employees are also no longer allowed to display their pronouns in email signatures or on Microsoft Teams.

NASA’s efforts to comply with the administration’s war on diversity and inclusion goes against its earlier promise to diversify its astronaut crews. In 2023, NASA revealed the four-person crew set to fly to the Moon and back as part of the Artemis 2 mission. The crew included NASA astronauts Victor Glover, who became the first Black crew member to live on board the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the SpaceX Crew-1 mission in November 2021, in which he served as the pilot. NASA astronaut Christina Koch was also selected for the Artemis 2 mission. Koch set the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman after spending a total of 328 days on board the International Space Station (ISS) for Expeditions 59, 60, and 61. The NASA astronaut also participated in the first all-female spacewalk, alongside astronaut Jessica Meir, in October 2019.

Unlike the days of Apollo, NASA was aiming to land a more inclusive crew on the lunar surface as part of its return to the Moon more than 50 years later. It’s not clear, however, whether NASA will stick to the plan after removing mention of its commitment to a diverse crew for Artemis 3.