A new order by the Trump administration issued late last month states that NASA will operate as a national intelligence and security agency. According to it, the space agency will now have a different set of primary functions, which includes “intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.” The revelation was made by NASA Watch founder Keith Cowing, as the issue didn’t exactly make headlines at the time. Keith was once a scientist at the space agency, and now closely watches everything that happens there. So, does this mean that NASA will go forward and develop spycraft instead of spacecraft? According to reports, the order is more about labour concerns rather than about the work NASA does. A report from Futurism states that the order adds “NASA to the Federal Service Labour-Management Relations Statute (FSLMRS), excluding it from collective bargaining representation.”
This sparked discontent among NASA employees, who staged a protest outside NASA’s Washington, DC, headquarters earlier this week. The change in the status of the space agency came as the president eliminated the union rights for thousands of federal employees. Several lawsuits had been filed to stop the order. As this news made headlines, the thing about NASA becoming a spy agency was sidelined. However, that is expected to have labour implications for the people working at the agency. Government Executive quoted the vice president of the Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians Association, Monica Gorman, as telling those gathered at the protest, “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.”
Hellbound and Down 