New Executive Order Reclassifies NASA as an Intelligence and Security Agency

[Elderberry]

The Debrief.org by Chrissy Newton·September 27, 2025

An Executive Order issued by the Trump Administration last month declares that NASA and several other U.S. government agencies will now operate primarily as intelligence and security agencies.

The Order states that NASA, among other agencies, will now “have as a primary function intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.”

Historically, NASA has focused on space exploration, Earth sciences, and scientific discovery. From sending humans into space to exploring distant planets with telescopes, spacecraft, and robotic probes, the agency has primarily operated as a scientific agency, which, through public outreach, has helped to connect the American people with their place in the cosmos.

By contrast, in the U.S., an intelligence agency is generally responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information to inform national security decisions.

Former NASA employee Keith Cowing, founder of NASA Watch, said this change is more about labor implications, with “no mention of that science and exploration stuff.” According to Cowing, the order’s addition of NASA to the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (FSLMRS) instantly strips employees of their union representation and collective bargaining rights, overshadowing the intelligence mandate it describes.

This week, protests erupted outside NASA’s Washington, DC, headquarters with employees voicing concern over what they see as an erosion of workplace protections.

“A huge part of the reason that I have that independence, and that my colleagues do, is that as a union-represented worker I know that I am protected from unfair retaliation,” Monica Gorman, area vice president of the Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians Association, said during the protests, as reported by Government Executive.

How will this change NASA?

One possibility is that the agency may be pressured into prioritizing intelligence gathering over its traditional collection of scientific data. Satellite missions, for example, could shift toward surveillance of foreign countries rather than the collection of imagery and data about Earth’s environment.

More: https://thedebrief.org/new-executive-order-reclassifies-nasa-as-an-intelligence-and-security-agency/

[DB]

Maybe NASA being a Muslim outreach program under previous management wasn't such a good plan either - but crickets...

I suspect doing this makes our space technology no longer shared with everyone on the planet including China and Russia.

But it still seems odd.

[BobfromWB]

47 seems determined to end the US space program as fast as possible by changing its mission which,, in its own way, is as bad or worse than 0bama's muscleman outreach mission for it.

Of course, the Chinese are loving every second of this idiotic move, and more love will be sent by them when they colonize and control the Moon's surface.

The US will never go back to the Moon and likely not to Mars either with idiots like 47 appointing a talk show host to run NASA.

[BobfromWB]

Maybe NASA being a Muslim outreach program under previous management wasn't such a good plan either - but crickets...

I suspect doing this makes our space technology no longer shared with everyone on the planet including China and Russia.

But it still seems odd.

Very odd. But then on Friday the 3rd, we will learn more about 3I Atlas and whether or not it is as artificial as it seems as it comes 18 million miles from the planet. Does it keep its course [ which a natural object would not ] or does it continue as predicted? Does it slow down more or speed up. No one knows what will happen, but now that NASA is no longer tasked with these sorts of missions, neither will we.

Some think that when it was first seen in May, it was breaking and the forward coma was the expelled gas and paritularily with the observered nickel without iron in the cloud [ oblates off rocket engines as they fire ].

 

[bilo]

“A huge part of the reason that I have that independence, and that my colleagues do, is that as a union-represented worker I know that I am protected from unfair retaliation,” Monica Gorman, area vice president of the Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians Association, said during the protests, as reported by Government Executive.


Maybe it is as simple as Pres. Trump wants to demand excellence in what they do and not lifetime union employment. I can't help but wonder if Pres. Trump talked with Elon about SpaceX and how they do things.

[rustynail]

NASA the Big Eye in the sky.