This Week in Space 185: Gutting Goddard
07 November 2025

This Week in Space 185: Gutting Goddard

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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?

Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik


Guest: Josh Dinner


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