Will NASA need to choose a new crew for Artemis in light of the recent Supreme Court decision banning race discrimination?

by philg

We were just at the Kennedy Space Center and learned that discrimination by race and gender ID is something to be proud of. NASA crows that the Artemis crew has been selected to include a person who identifies as a “woman” and another person who identifies as “of color”. From the project web site:

A different branch of government, however, has recently ruled that universities that get government funding shouldn’t be allowed to discriminate by race (see Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard). I’m wondering if NASA will now have to redo the hiring for the Artemis mission in a race- and, perhaps, gender-ID-neutral manner.

Here are some photos from the visit, which coincided with a SpaceX launch of the Europeans’ Euclid telescope…

Banners everywhere celebrated “40 years of women in space,” just in time for the term “women” to have become undefined:

Celebrating specific gender/race groups can be continued at home after a visit to the gift shop:

(An immigrant friend pointed out to his kids that “the real hidden figures were 1600 Nazi scientists”)

If Harvard can’t discriminate by race in admissions, how is NASA able to discriminate by race in selecting astronauts?

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11 thoughts on “Will NASA need to choose a new crew for Artemis in light of the recent Supreme Court decision banning race discrimination?”

  1. They should hire Trudeau and make him identify as a woman: He has alleged Cuban heritage, occasionally identifies as Black, and popularized the crucial term in the sentence that they’ll undoubtedly use:

    “That’s one small step for woman, one giant leap for peoplekind.”

  2. Feeling so proud of so many ‘barriers’ being broken – will NASA eliminate discriminatory weight & fitness requirements for astronauts?

    How many Mission Control personnel will be authorized to work remotely?

    • “How many Mission Control personnel will be authorized to work remotely?”

      A former $30K/yr administrative assistant at my employer got an $80K/yr job at NASA a couple of years ago. She’s been on Covid-related work-from-home for the past 3.5 years, mostly taking on-line college classes so to earn her BA degree and another raise at NASA.

  3. I think this would be a wonderful opportunity to pause for a moment and give thanks for the many great contributions of the black community and their culture to our society.
    Their peaceful and generous nature makes them ideal neighbors, lending testimony to their exceptional family values and parenting skills unrivaled by any other culture.
    Their commitment to academic excellence enriches our schools and serves as an example to all who hope to achieve prominence as a people.
    Real estate values are fueled by the influx of African Americans into an area due to their caring and respectful nurturing of these communities, as an example of all they have achieved by their enthusiasm for self-improvement through hard work and a self-reliant can-do nature.
    African American international reputation for self restraint, boundless patience and superior non-violent conflict resolution skills is legendary across the globe.
    Without their industrious and creative drive, we would be poorer as a nation.

  4. Once figured the artemis program would get canceled, but since Elon found an endless number of distractions & the starship program slowed down, it’s going to keep going.

  5. Are there highly selective criteria for being an astronaut or is it the kind of thing that lots and lots of people would quality for so it is hard to say that one person, among a group of qualified people, is the most qualified? So is it like who should be selected to play center field for the American League in the All Star Game or is it like who should be selected for a position as a toll collector on the NJ Turnpike?

    • Remember – they originally used apes for spaceflight. Says a lot about astronaut qualifications.

      In reality, astronauts are biorobots. Probably need a clearance to go take #2, not to mentuon for doing anything requiring actual thinking.

      Why drag all that life-support stuff out of the gravity well for anything other than political posturing and maybe tourism?

    • “Why drag all that life-support stuff out of the gravity well for anything other than political posturing and maybe tourism?”

      Well, they did give us Tang and Velcro.

    • @ averros they have moved from apes to [forbidden term for noble Black people]!

      [Edited by Philip]

  6. You are right “Dr” Phil — they should take back those astronaut slots from the women and minorities and give them to white men, as God intended.

    “How is NASA able to discriminate by race in selecting astronauts?”
    Did you really just say that women and minorities couldn’t have been the highest qualified? Just flat out racism? You have specific knowledge of the internal selection criteria?

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