NASA pauses work by key space science groups amid Trump executive orders

By Tariq Malik

The space agency’s planetary science analysis groups must pause while NASA checks if they comply with Trump’s orders.

NASA has ordered key planetary science committees for Mars, moon and other exploration to pause all work due to Trump administration executive orders. (Image credit: NASA)

NASA has ordered a pause on all work by key planetary and astrophysics science committees due to recent executive orders by President Donald Trump.

In a series of memos sent from NASA headquarters late Friday (Jan. 31), the space agency directed the leaders of at least 10 planetary science assessment and analysis groups that cover a wide range of topics, from the exploration of the moon and solar system planets to “ocean worlds” like the icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter. According to SpaceNews, NASA’s astrophysics assessment groups received similar memos, all of which cited a need to ensure the groups were in compliance with recent executive orders by Trump.

“As NASA continues to review and ensure compliance with presidential actions, we are requesting that you please pause all meetings and activities of Planetary Science Analysis/Assessment Groups,” read one NASA memo to the Mercury Exploration Assessment Group, which was obtained by Space.com and was nearly identical to memos sent to other planetary science committees.

The memos cited six Trump executive actions, three of them aimed at ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government. Two others targeting so-called “gender ideology extremism,” while another referred to “Unleashing American Energy” that roll back climate change-related executive orders by the Biden administration.

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The pause order from NASA headquarters has already led to the cancellation of at least one planetary science meeting. The Mercury exploration group, known by the acronym MExAG was scheduled to hold its first in-person meeting this week from Feb. 4 to Feb. 6, but will no longer meet.

“We are forced, therefore, to cancel MExAG 2025,” the Mercury committee’s chair Carolyn Ernst, a planetary scientist with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, wrote in a memo obtained by Space.com. “This turn of events is shocking and concerning, and is extra painful given the order comes four days before our first in-person meeting.” Some committee members had already begun travel for the meeting, Ernst added.

The nearly three-day hybrid meeting was expected to include at up 200 scientists attending either in person of virtually, one scientist Ed Rivera-Valentin shared on the social media site Bluesky. It was expected to include a number of researchers connected to the BepiColombo Mercury mission run by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency. The probe just made its sixth flyby of Mercury on Jan. 8.

“The MExAG steering committee is heartbroken that our first in-person meeting was cancelled due to this,” scientist Mallory Kinczyk wrote on Bluesky.

Vicky Hamilton, a planetary geologist with the Southwest Research Institute who chairs NASA’s Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, said in a memo to her committee that the group has stopped planning work for its own meeting scheduled for April.

“We will let everyone know as soon as we are able to resume work,” she wrote in a memo obtained by Space.com.

NASA’s assessment and analysis groups meet regularly to assess the latest discoveries and missions in their specific fields and report them back to the space agency’s internal planetary science and astrophysics divisions. While they provide key insight into space science, the groups are not formal advisory committees overseen by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, according to SpaceNews. Many of the planetary science committees are overseen by the Lunar and Planetary Institute, which itself is managed by the Universities Space Research Association.

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NASA’s pause order to its analysis groups is one of several agency changes that have followed executive orders from the Trump administration.

The agency has begun restricting funding to programs related to diversity, equity and inequality, including to a Here to Observer program that connected students from underrepresented groups with NASA planetary science missions, according to SpaceNews.

SpaceNews also reported that the agency has removed a 2023 article about the NASA astronaut class of 1978, a team that included the agency’s first Black, Asian-American and female astronauts, written by NASA’s own history office. It appears to have been removed by Jan. 29, after being accessible as late as Jan. 25, SpaceNews added. You can still find the article on the Internet Archive.

Space.com has reached out to NASA headquarters for comment and will update this story if one is received.

NASA pauses work by key space science groups amid Trump executive orders

By Tariq Malik

The space agency’s planetary science analysis groups must pause while NASA checks if they comply with Trump’s orders.

NASA has ordered key planetary science committees for Mars, moon and other exploration to pause all work due to Trump administration executive orders. (Image credit: NASA)

NASA has ordered a pause on all work by key planetary and astrophysics science committees due to recent executive orders by President Donald Trump.

In a series of memos sent from NASA headquarters late Friday (Jan. 31), the space agency directed the leaders of at least 10 planetary science assessment and analysis groups that cover a wide range of topics, from the exploration of the moon and solar system planets to “ocean worlds” like the icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter. According to SpaceNews, NASA’s astrophysics assessment groups received similar memos, all of which cited a need to ensure the groups were in compliance with recent executive orders by Trump.

“As NASA continues to review and ensure compliance with presidential actions, we are requesting that you please pause all meetings and activities of Planetary Science Analysis/Assessment Groups,” read one NASA memo to the Mercury Exploration Assessment Group, which was obtained by Space.com and was nearly identical to memos sent to other planetary science committees.

The memos cited six Trump executive actions, three of them aimed at ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government. Two others targeting so-called “gender ideology extremism,” while another referred to “Unleashing American Energy” that roll back climate change-related executive orders by the Biden administration.

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The pause order from NASA headquarters has already led to the cancellation of at least one planetary science meeting. The Mercury exploration group, known by the acronym MExAG was scheduled to hold its first in-person meeting this week from Feb. 4 to Feb. 6, but will no longer meet.

“We are forced, therefore, to cancel MExAG 2025,” the Mercury committee’s chair Carolyn Ernst, a planetary scientist with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, wrote in a memo obtained by Space.com. “This turn of events is shocking and concerning, and is extra painful given the order comes four days before our first in-person meeting.” Some committee members had already begun travel for the meeting, Ernst added.

The nearly three-day hybrid meeting was expected to include at up 200 scientists attending either in person of virtually, one scientist Ed Rivera-Valentin shared on the social media site Bluesky. It was expected to include a number of researchers connected to the BepiColombo Mercury mission run by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency. The probe just made its sixth flyby of Mercury on Jan. 8.

“The MExAG steering committee is heartbroken that our first in-person meeting was cancelled due to this,” scientist Mallory Kinczyk wrote on Bluesky.

Vicky Hamilton, a planetary geologist with the Southwest Research Institute who chairs NASA’s Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, said in a memo to her committee that the group has stopped planning work for its own meeting scheduled for April.

“We will let everyone know as soon as we are able to resume work,” she wrote in a memo obtained by Space.com.

NASA’s assessment and analysis groups meet regularly to assess the latest discoveries and missions in their specific fields and report them back to the space agency’s internal planetary science and astrophysics divisions. While they provide key insight into space science, the groups are not formal advisory committees overseen by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, according to SpaceNews. Many of the planetary science committees are overseen by the Lunar and Planetary Institute, which itself is managed by the Universities Space Research Association.

Related Stories:

— Trump wants the US to land astronauts on Mars soon. Could it happen?

— Trump says he’d create a Space National Guard if elected

—  Trump’s space policy won’t catch Europe off guard, ESA chief says

NASA’s pause order to its analysis groups is one of several agency changes that have followed executive orders from the Trump administration.

The agency has begun restricting funding to programs related to diversity, equity and inequality, including to a Here to Observer program that connected students from underrepresented groups with NASA planetary science missions, according to SpaceNews.

SpaceNews also reported that the agency has removed a 2023 article about the NASA astronaut class of 1978, a team that included the agency’s first Black, Asian-American and female astronauts, written by NASA’s own history office. It appears to have been removed by Jan. 29, after being accessible as late as Jan. 25, SpaceNews added. You can still find the article on the Internet Archive.

Space.com has reached out to NASA headquarters for comment and will update this story if one is received.

According to The Washington Post, “At the National Science Foundation, staff have been combing through thousands of active science research projects, alongside a list of keywords, to determine if they include activities that violate executive orders President Donald Trump issued in his first week in office. Those include orders to recognize only two genders and roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The search is driven by dozens of flagged words, according to an internal document reviewed by The Washington Post and two NSF employees with knowledge of the review process who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak.”

The words triggering NSF reviews provide a picture of the sievelike net being cast over the typically politically independent scientific enterprise, including words like “trauma,” “barriers,” “equity” and “excluded.”

Here is a sampling of keywords drawing scrutiny to science:

activism

activists

advocacy

advocate

advocates

barrier

barriers

biased

biased toward

biases

biases towards

bipoc

black and latinx

community diversity

community equity

cultural differences

cultural heritage

culturally responsive

disabilities

disability

discriminated

discrimination

discriminatory

diverse backgrounds

diverse communities

diverse community

diverse group

diverse groups

diversified diversify

diversifying

diversity and inclusion

diversity equity

enhance the diversity

enhancing diversity

equal opportunity

equality

equitable

equity

ethnicity

excluded

female

females

fostering inclusivity

gender

gender diversity

genders

hate speech

hispanic minority

historically

implicit bias

implicit biases

inclusion

inclusive

inclusiveness

inclusivity

increase diversity

increase the diversity

indigenous community

inequalities

inequality

inequitable

inequities

institutional

Igbt

marginalize

marginalized

minorities

minority

multicultural

polarization

political

prejudice

privileges

promoting diversity

race and ethnicity

racial

racial diversity

This list is not a complete list, although it is quite extensive.

The Washington Post adds that “According to an internal document, NSF grants that are flagged for “further action” because they don’t comply with the executive orders could be subject to a range of additional steps, including modification to be in compliance or being terminated in part or whole.”

According to The Washington Post, “At the National Science Foundation, staff have been combing through thousands of active science research projects, alongside a list of keywords, to determine if they include activities that violate executive orders President Donald Trump issued in his first week in office. Those include orders to recognize only two genders and roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The search is driven by dozens of flagged words, according to an internal document reviewed by The Washington Post and two NSF employees with knowledge of the review process who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak.”

The words triggering NSF reviews provide a picture of the sievelike net being cast over the typically politically independent scientific enterprise, including words like “trauma,” “barriers,” “equity” and “excluded.”

Here is a sampling of keywords drawing scrutiny to science:

activism

activists

advocacy

advocate

advocates

barrier

barriers

biased

biased toward

biases

biases towards

bipoc

black and latinx

community diversity

community equity

cultural differences

cultural heritage

culturally responsive

disabilities

disability

discriminated

discrimination

discriminatory

diverse backgrounds

diverse communities

diverse community

diverse group

diverse groups

diversified diversify

diversifying

diversity and inclusion

diversity equity

enhance the diversity

enhancing diversity

equal opportunity

equality

equitable

equity

ethnicity

excluded

female

females

fostering inclusivity

gender

gender diversity

genders

hate speech

hispanic minority

historically

implicit bias

implicit biases

inclusion

inclusive

inclusiveness

inclusivity

increase diversity

increase the diversity

indigenous community

inequalities

inequality

inequitable

inequities

institutional

Igbt

marginalize

marginalized

minorities

minority

multicultural

polarization

political

prejudice

privileges

promoting diversity

race and ethnicity

racial

racial diversity

This list is not a complete list, although it is quite extensive.

The Washington Post adds that “According to an internal document, NSF grants that are flagged for “further action” because they don’t comply with the executive orders could be subject to a range of additional steps, including modification to be in compliance or being terminated in part or whole.”

Grammarphobia

By Pat and Stewart on February 10, 2025

Q: The act of clinking glasses and saying “cheers” is becoming known as “cheersing.” Well, there wasn’t already a word for this, so I guess we needed one. What do you think of this neo-verb?

A: The use of “cheers” as a verb meaning to say “cheers” in a toast, often while clinking glasses, has been around for at least two decades. Standard dictionaries haven’t recognized it yet, but two collaborative online dictionaries have entries:

Wiktionary defines it as “to say ‘cheers’ as a toast (to someone)” and has this example: “We cheersed and started drinking” (from Unheard Love: Experience the Illusion of Love, 2018, a novel by Kavya Mahadik).

Urban Dictionary (in a 2011 entry) says it’s a “clickety clank clack of glasses in union, most commonly to refer to beer mugs raised in celebration.” Example: “He spilt nearly half of his Budweiser when he cheersed his glass with Pat’s.”

The earliest example we’ve found is from Mosh Pit (2004), by the Canadian novelist Kristyn Dunnion: “Choosy Soozy was drinking shots at the bar with her friends. I cheersed her with my fist because I didn’t have a beer yet, and she yelled, ‘Hey, thanks for coming to the show!’ ”

Interestingly, saying “cheers” as “a toast or salutation before drinking” is relatively recent, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The interjection first appeared in the early 20th century.

The OED’s earliest citation is from a newspaper in Perth, Australia: “The brief toast of ‘Cheers, dears!’ ” (Sunday Times, Sept. 14, 1930). However, the dictionary cautions that “the earliest use so far traced comes from Australia but it is uncertain whether it originated there.”

As for the etymology, the OED says the interjection apparently originated as the plural of the noun “cheer,” which meant one’s countenance, face, or emotional state when it appeared in the late 12th or early 13th centuries.

The first two senses are now obsolete, but the third—the emotional state—is still seen in the somewhat musty expression “be of good cheer,” which Oxford dates back to Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde (circa 1385):

“Loue hath beset þe wel be of good chere” (“Love hath beset thee well, be of good cheer”).

In the 15th century, the noun “cheer” took on the sense of “food and drink provided for a guest or (now chiefly) enjoyed on a festive occasion,” the OED says.

The dictionary’s first example is from Le Morte Darthur (circa 1470), Sir Thomas Malory’s Middle English prose version of the Anglo-Norman Arthurian tales. In this passage, the desolate Palamedes, who’s hopelessly in love with Isolde, doesn’t feel up to dinner:

“So they wente vnto mete, but sir Palomydes myght nat ete, and there was alle the chire that myght be had” (“So they went to dinner, but Sir Palamedes could not eat, despite all the cheer [food and drink] that might be had”).

In the early 18th century, the OED says, the noun “cheer” came to mean “a shout of acclamation, encouragement, or jubilation; esp. (in singular and plural) the loud, collective shouts and other expressions of acclamation of a company or crowd.”

The first Oxford citation is from The Barbacue Feast: or, the Three Pigs of Peckham, Broil’d Under an Apple-Tree (1707), by the British satirist Edward Ward: “A huge Whistle-booby Boatswain … commanded three Chears from the Company.”

The dictionary notes that the term could refer at this time to specific shouts of “hear hear,” “hurrah,” “huzza,” and so on. However, none of the examples cited include shouts of “cheer” or “cheers.”

In the early 20th century, the interjection “cheers” began being “used as an expression of encouragement, approval, or enthusiasm,” Oxford says. The first citation, which we’ve expanded, is from a letter written on May 30, 1915, by W. Robert Foran, a British Army officer, big game hunter, and writer:

“We go out in a couple of weeks to the front. Cheers! Love to all my old friends in the Club. Send me THE SCOOP. Best wishes from Вob” (from the June 19, 1915, issue of The Scoop, a daily published by the Press Club of Chicago from 1911-17).

And as we mentioned above, the earliest OED citation for the use of the interjection “cheers” as a toast or salutation before drinking appeared in Australia in 1930.

In the dictionary’s next example for this sense of the word, two old friends exchange drinking salutations:

“ ‘Cheers!’ said the one, and ‘Here’s mud in your eye!’ the other” (from The Clock Ticks On, a 1933 mystery by the British author and journalist Valentine Williams).

In the late 20th century, the interjection “cheers” took on the sense of “thanks” in British English. The first OED example is from the British journalist Phillip Howard in The Times, London, Aug. 4, 1976:

“By a remarkable transition from the pub to the sober world at large outside cheers has become the colloquial synonym in British English for ‘thanks.’ ”

Finally, here’s an example from Kingsley Amis’s novel Jake’s Thing (1978). In this passage, Jake is relieved that a news agent doesn’t smirk when he sees a racy magazine among those Jake has selected:

“As it turned out he had been hard on this man, who politely didn’t smile or leer when he saw Jake’s selection, named a cash sum once and said Cheers five times, the first time when he noticed the approach of his customer, again when he handed the magazines, again when he took money, again when he gave change and the last time when bidden good-bye.”

Grammarphobia

By Pat and Stewart on February 10, 2025

Q: The act of clinking glasses and saying “cheers” is becoming known as “cheersing.” Well, there wasn’t already a word for this, so I guess we needed one. What do you think of this neo-verb?

A: The use of “cheers” as a verb meaning to say “cheers” in a toast, often while clinking glasses, has been around for at least two decades. Standard dictionaries haven’t recognized it yet, but two collaborative online dictionaries have entries:

Wiktionary defines it as “to say ‘cheers’ as a toast (to someone)” and has this example: “We cheersed and started drinking” (from Unheard Love: Experience the Illusion of Love, 2018, a novel by Kavya Mahadik).

Urban Dictionary (in a 2011 entry) says it’s a “clickety clank clack of glasses in union, most commonly to refer to beer mugs raised in celebration.” Example: “He spilt nearly half of his Budweiser when he cheersed his glass with Pat’s.”

The earliest example we’ve found is from Mosh Pit (2004), by the Canadian novelist Kristyn Dunnion: “Choosy Soozy was drinking shots at the bar with her friends. I cheersed her with my fist because I didn’t have a beer yet, and she yelled, ‘Hey, thanks for coming to the show!’ ”

Interestingly, saying “cheers” as “a toast or salutation before drinking” is relatively recent, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The interjection first appeared in the early 20th century.

The OED’s earliest citation is from a newspaper in Perth, Australia: “The brief toast of ‘Cheers, dears!’ ” (Sunday Times, Sept. 14, 1930). However, the dictionary cautions that “the earliest use so far traced comes from Australia but it is uncertain whether it originated there.”

As for the etymology, the OED says the interjection apparently originated as the plural of the noun “cheer,” which meant one’s countenance, face, or emotional state when it appeared in the late 12th or early 13th centuries.

The first two senses are now obsolete, but the third—the emotional state—is still seen in the somewhat musty expression “be of good cheer,” which Oxford dates back to Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde (circa 1385):

“Loue hath beset þe wel be of good chere” (“Love hath beset thee well, be of good cheer”).

In the 15th century, the noun “cheer” took on the sense of “food and drink provided for a guest or (now chiefly) enjoyed on a festive occasion,” the OED says.

The dictionary’s first example is from Le Morte Darthur (circa 1470), Sir Thomas Malory’s Middle English prose version of the Anglo-Norman Arthurian tales. In this passage, the desolate Palamedes, who’s hopelessly in love with Isolde, doesn’t feel up to dinner:

“So they wente vnto mete, but sir Palomydes myght nat ete, and there was alle the chire that myght be had” (“So they went to dinner, but Sir Palamedes could not eat, despite all the cheer [food and drink] that might be had”).

In the early 18th century, the OED says, the noun “cheer” came to mean “a shout of acclamation, encouragement, or jubilation; esp. (in singular and plural) the loud, collective shouts and other expressions of acclamation of a company or crowd.”

The first Oxford citation is from The Barbacue Feast: or, the Three Pigs of Peckham, Broil’d Under an Apple-Tree (1707), by the British satirist Edward Ward: “A huge Whistle-booby Boatswain … commanded three Chears from the Company.”

The dictionary notes that the term could refer at this time to specific shouts of “hear hear,” “hurrah,” “huzza,” and so on. However, none of the examples cited include shouts of “cheer” or “cheers.”

In the early 20th century, the interjection “cheers” began being “used as an expression of encouragement, approval, or enthusiasm,” Oxford says. The first citation, which we’ve expanded, is from a letter written on May 30, 1915, by W. Robert Foran, a British Army officer, big game hunter, and writer:

“We go out in a couple of weeks to the front. Cheers! Love to all my old friends in the Club. Send me THE SCOOP. Best wishes from Вob” (from the June 19, 1915, issue of The Scoop, a daily published by the Press Club of Chicago from 1911-17).

And as we mentioned above, the earliest OED citation for the use of the interjection “cheers” as a toast or salutation before drinking appeared in Australia in 1930.

In the dictionary’s next example for this sense of the word, two old friends exchange drinking salutations:

“ ‘Cheers!’ said the one, and ‘Here’s mud in your eye!’ the other” (from The Clock Ticks On, a 1933 mystery by the British author and journalist Valentine Williams).

In the late 20th century, the interjection “cheers” took on the sense of “thanks” in British English. The first OED example is from the British journalist Phillip Howard in The Times, London, Aug. 4, 1976:

“By a remarkable transition from the pub to the sober world at large outside cheers has become the colloquial synonym in British English for ‘thanks.’ ”

Finally, here’s an example from Kingsley Amis’s novel Jake’s Thing (1978). In this passage, Jake is relieved that a news agent doesn’t smirk when he sees a racy magazine among those Jake has selected:

“As it turned out he had been hard on this man, who politely didn’t smile or leer when he saw Jake’s selection, named a cash sum once and said Cheers five times, the first time when he noticed the approach of his customer, again when he handed the magazines, again when he took money, again when he gave change and the last time when bidden good-bye.”